YVi 


III 


“Japan’s  Message  to  America” 

(A  REPLY) 

Considering  the  impelling  cause  which  moves  the  Japanese  nation  to 
desire  the  good  will  of  the  American  people;  the  necessity  to  Japan  of 
free  intercourse  with  the  civilization  of  the  West,  now  shut  off  by 
immigration  exclusion;  the  calamity  which  inevitably  must  befall 
that  nation  through  a continuance  of  the  isolation  thrust  upon  her 
by  this  policy.  The  doctrine  of  exclusion  shown  to  rest  upon  a 
mistaken  belief  regarding  the  effect  of  labor  immigration 
upon  wages  of  intra-country  workmen;  the  popular  opinion 
being  that  such  immigration  lowers  wages,  whereas,  in 
truth,  it  raises  wages  and  increases  general  prosperity. 


It  is  the  nature  of  every  soul  to  assent  to  the  truth,  to  dissent  from  the  false, 
and  to  remain  in  suspense  as  to  that  which  is  uncertain;  so  it  is  Its  nature 
to  be  moved  toward  the  desire  for  good,  and  to  aversion  from  the  evil;  and 
with  respect  to  that  which  is  neither  good  nor  bad  he  feels  indifferent.  For 
as  the  money  changer  is  not  allowed  to  reject  Caesar’s  coin,  nor  the  seller  of 
herbs,  but  if  you  show  the  coin,  whether  he  chooses  or  not,  he  must  give  up 
what  is  sold  for  the^  coin,  so  it  is  also  in  the  matter  of  the  soul.  When  the 
good  appears  it  immediately  attracts  to  itself;  the  evil  repels  from  Itself. 
But  the  soul  will  never  reject  the  manifest  appearance  of  the  good,  any 
more  than  persons  will  reject  Caesar’s  coin.  On  this  principle  depends  every 
movement  both  of  man  and  God. — Epictetus,  Bk.  3,  ch.  III. 


BY 

JOHN  E.  BENNETT 

OF  THE 

SAN  FRANCISCO  BAR 


/ 


Our  National  Tendency  and  its  Goal 

Being  a discussion  of  the  Political  and  Industrial  direction  of  the  United  States 
under  the  Influence  of  prevailing  economic  forces,  and  statement  of  the 
causes  thereof,  and  the  means  to  avert  the  conclusion  to  which  those  forces 
are  proceeding. 

Together  with  an  Address  before  the  Chinese 
Students  Association  of  America  at  its  Con- 
vention held  In  San  Francisco  in  January,  1914,  , 

upon 

THE  STUDENT  IN  ORIENTAL  IMMIGRATION 

Considering  the  effect  upon  China  and  Japan  of  the  Policy  of  the  United  States 
in  shutting  off  migration  of  the  Orient  with  the  West,  the  real  cause  that 
moves  industrial  migration,  and  the  condition  that  confronts  Oriental  Stu- 
dents seeking  education  in  the. United  States,  by  reason  of  these  influences. 

ffy  JOHN  E.  BENNETT,  of  the  San  Francisco  {Fjar 


Copies  of  the  above  and  the  witliin  pamphlet  may  be  had  by  addressing  the 
author  at  1310-11  Humboldt  Bank  Building,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 


The  author  retains  no  copyright  on  either  of  the  above  pamphlets,  and  anyone  is 
privileged  to  publish  the  Sipie  J!or  sale  or  otherwise,  provided  only  an  entire  pamphlet  is 
printed  and  not  a part  thereof.  Newspapers  and  magazines  may  make  excerpts. 


“Japan’s  Message  to  America” 


(A  REPLY) 


Considering  the  impelling  cause  which  moves  the  Japanese  nation  to 
desire  the  good  will  of  the  American  people;  the  necessity  to  Japan  of 
free  intercourse  with  the  civilization  of  the  West,  now  shut  off  by 
immigration  exclusion;  the  calamity  which  inevitably  must  befall 
that  nation  through  a continuance  of  the  isolation  thrust  upon  her 
by  this  policy.  The  doctrine  of  exclusion  shown  to  rest  upon  a 
mistaken  belief  regarding  the  effect  of  labor  immigration 
upon  wages  of  intra-country  workmen;  the  popular  opinion 
being  that  such  immigration  lowers  wages,  whereas,  in 
truth,  it  raises  wages  and  increases  general  prosperity. 


It  is  the  nature  of  every  soul  to  assent  to  the  truth,  to  dissent  from  the  false, 
and  to  remain  in  suspense  as  to  that  which  is  uncertain;  so  it  is  its  nature 
to  be  moved  toward  the  desire  for  good,  and  to  aversion  from  the  evil;  and 
with  respect  to  that  which  is  neither  good  nor  bad  he  feels  indifferent.  For 
as  the  money  changer  is  not  allowed  to  reject  Caesar’s  coin,  nor  the  seller  of 
herbs,  but  if  you  show  the  coin,  whether  he  chooses  or  not,  he  must  give  up 
what  is  sold  for  the  coin,  so  it  is  also  in  the  matter  of  the  soul.  When  the 
good  appears  it  immediately  attracts  to  itself;  the  evil  repels  from  itself. 
But  the  soul  will  never  reject  the  manifest  appearance  of  the  good,  any 
more  than  persons  will  reject  Caesar's  coin.  On  this  principle  depends  every 
movement  both  of  man  and  God. — Epictetus,  Bk.  3,  ch.  III. 


BY 


OF  THE 


SAN  FRANCISCO  BAR 


Copies  of  this  pamphlet  may  be  had  by 
addressing  the  author,  at 
1310-11  Humboldt  Bank  Building, 
San  Francisco,  Cal. 


PRESS  OF 

SCHWABACHER-FREY  STATIONERY  CO., 
SAN  FRANCISCO. 


“JAPAN’S  MESSAGETO  AMERICA” 


(A  REPLY) 

By  JOHN  E.  BENNETT 


(Thirty-five  leading  Japanese  contributed  articles  upon  Japan’s  indus- 
trial, ethical  and  sociological  conditions,  to  the  compilation  of  a book 
designed  for  circulation  in  the  United  States,  entitled  Japan’s  Message  to 
America.  A copy  of  this  work  was  by  the  editor,  Mr.  Naoichi  Masaoka, 
sent  Mr.  Bennett  with  a request  that  he  write  his  views  upon  it.  Mr. 
Bennett  selected  the  work  as  a theme  for  the  following  article.) 


I take  this  book  seriously.  Here  are  two  hundred  and  sixty-two  pages 
of  a bound  volume,  containing  articles  by  thirty-four  of  the  leading  men 
and  perhaps  the  most  distinguished  woman,  barring  the  Empress,  in  Japan; 
the  leading  article  written  by  the  celebrated  Count  Shigenobo  Okuma,  now 
Premier  of  Japan,  the  compilation  containing  dissertations  by  the  great 
Baron  Ei-ichi  Shibusawa,  the  most  notable  business  man  of  the  Orient;  by 
Baron  Kentaro  Kaneko,  distinguished  in  international  law  and  in  Japanese 
official  life;  by  Baron  Shimpei  Goto,  physician,  sanitary  engineer,  civil 
governor,  who  conducted  the  wonderful  sanitary  service  of  the  Japanese 
army  during  the  Russian  war;  by  Baron  Rempei  Kondo,  president  of  the 
Nippon  Yusen  Kaisha;  by  Hon.  Soicliiro  Asano,  head  of  the  Toyo  Kisen 
Kaisha ; by  Hon.  Tckugoro  Nakahashi,  president  of  the  Osaka  Sliosen 
Kaisha — all  great  steamship  systems  of  Japan ; by  Baron  Buei  Nakano, 
president  of  the  Tokyo  Chamber  of  Commerce;  Dr.  Juichi  Soyecla,  president 
of  Nippon  Kogyo  Bank,  whom  we  know  so  favorably  and  well  in  San  Fran- 
cisco through  his  visit  here  last  year;  Mr.  Takejiro  Tckanami,  head  of  the 
railway  system  of  Japan,  president  of  the  Imperial  Board;  Viscount  Yataro 
Michima,  Governor  of  the  Bank  of  Japan;  Hon.  Kojiro  Matsukata,  presi- 
dent of  the  Kawasaki  shipbuilding  yard;  Rev.  Tasuku  Harada,  head  of  the 
Doshisha  University;  Hon.  Eikichi  Kamada,  head  of  the  Iveio  University; 
Mr.  Masataro  Sawayanagi,  president  of  the  Kyoto  Imperial  University; 
Mr.  Kenzo  Iwahara,  managing  director  of  the  great  Mitsui  interests,  the 
Alitsui  Russan  Kaisha ; by  merchants,  financiers,  builders,  educators,  theo- 
logians, lawyers,  journalists — all  presenting  articles  bearing  upon  vital 
interests  of  Japan,  the  entire  compiled  under  direction  of  the  eminent 
editor  Mr.  Naoichi  Masaoka,  sent  forward  to  the  United  States  under  the 
title  of  Japan’s  Message  to  America,  and  distributed  amongst  our  leading 


3 


people.  Altogether,  one  would  say,  a remarkable  volume  and  an  extraor- 
dinary circumstance.  I think,  indeed,  it  is  probably  unparalleled  in  the 
history  of  intercourse  amongst  nations.  There  is  no  doubt  that  these  men 
comprise  the  Japan  of  today.  Eliminate  them  and  the  several  interests 
for  which  they  stand,  and  there  is  removed  the  vital  heart  of  Japan,  that 
remaining  being  the  body  and  integumen;  in  very  truth  the  message  is 
Japan’s  message,  and  it  is  directed  to  America. 

The  force  of  this  incident  may  be  realized  when  there  is  contemplated 
such  a thing  as  a book  gotten  up  through  articles  contributed  upon  matter 
of  their  respective  affairs  by  such  men  amongst  us  as  John  D.  Rockefeller 
in  finance,  J.  P.  Morgan  in  banking,  James  J.  Hill  and  E.  P.  Ripley  in 
railroads,  J.  Ogden  Armour  in  meat  packing,  Andrew  Carnegie  in  philan- 
thropy, Joseph  Choate  in  law,  Eliliu  Root  in  statesmanship,  E.  H.  Gary 
and  Charles  M.  Schwab  in  steel  manufactures,  Seth  Low  in  education,  Mrs. 
J.  Borden  IJarriman  in  social  science,  and  on  this  Coast  such  men  as 
William  H.  Crocker  in  finance  and  William  S.  Tevis  in  promotion,  all 
articles  written  with  special  reference  to  the  information  of  the  Japanese 
people,  with  the  leading  article  by  William  J.  Bryan,  compiled  in  a bound 
and  illustrated  volume  under  the  editorship  of  James  Gordon  Bennett,  and 
forwarded  to  Japan  for  circulation  among  her  leading  men  under  the  title 
of  “America’s  Message  to  Japan’’;  suppose,  I say,  such  a thing  as  this 
would  happen,  how  would  it  strike  the  ordinary  American  mind?  We 
should  at  once  look  for  the  reason  for  an  occurrence  of  this  sort.  It  is  no 
idle  effort,  the  sending  by  Japan  of  such  greeting  to  us;  it  is  full  of 
meaning;  it  is  an  act  with  a purpose.  And  so  I,  having  received  and  read 
this  book,  look  for  its  meaning,  try  to  see  its  significance,  to  sense  the 
impulse  that  moved  it  forth. 

The  purport  of  the  book  is  obviously  an  appeal  for  the  good  will  of  the 
American  people.  It  is  a reaching  out  of  the  arms  of  Japan  toward  that 
people  who  first  called  her  out  of  the  night  of  feudalism  and  showed  her 
the  road  to  the  higher  light,  not  to  forsake  her,  but  still  to  point  the  way. 
This  is  manifest,  but  why  such  an  appeal?  What  is  there  present  in  the 
situation  or  condition  of  Japan  that  suggests  such  a thing  and  makes  the 


*The  following  appeared  in  Current  Opinion  March,  1914,  p.  174: 

Japan  in  a Panic  at  the  Growth  of  Russia’s  Army. — Words  have  not  been  minced  by 
Yuan  Shi  Kai  lately  in  expressing  that  feeling  of  hostility  to  Japan  with  which  she  has 
always  credited  him.  His  conversations  with  members  of  the  diplomatic  corps  on  the 
subject  of  Tokyo  policy  are  amazing  the  representatives  of  the  powers  in  Peking.  Such 
is  the  gist  of  all  the  gossip  streaming  into  European  newspaper  columns  from  the  far 
East.  Japan,  as  her  attitude  is  defined  in  the  German  press,  feels  that  the  ruler  of  China 
has  gone  over  to  her  foe.  To  the  Manchester  “Guardian"  Yuan  seems  to  be  temporizing 
with  Russia  in  Mongolia  and  with  the  Yamamoto  government  in  Manchuria  “until  he 
feels  sure  of  himself.”  Yuan’s  grievance  against  Japan  has  to  do  with  the  many  revolu- 
tions springing  up  throughout  the  southern  territory  of  the  “republic.”  All  are  fomented, 
he  thinks,  from  Tokyo.  Yuan  and  Japan  can  agree  upon  one  point  only — the  growing 
might  of  Russia.  That  theme  fills  the  Paris  press,  receives  attention,  indeed,  in  London 
dailies.  Unprecedented  and  enormous  masses  of  cavalry,  infantry  and  artillery  have 
risen  silently  out  of  the  Russian  soil  during  the  years  that  have  come  and  gone  since  the 
war  with  Japan.  The  whole  work  of  reconstruction  and  rearmament  has  been  accom- 
plished, says  the  London  “Telegraph,”  within  five  years.  The  wretched  armies  of 
Kuropatkin  in  Manchuria,  says  the  Paris  “Matin,”  have  been  superseded  by  a host 
equipped  with  guns  of  the  best  and  latest  pattern.  Fourteen  hundred  thousand  Russian 
troops  can  be  put  under  arms  at  once  with  an  equipment  more  adequate  than  that  of 
Germany’s  immense  array.  The  Czar  has  an  army  reaching  six  millions  on  a war 
footing.  These  are  the  details  which  give  Tokyo  concern,  we  read. 


4 


suggestion  of  such  force  that  it  is  carried  into  effect?  Surely  Japan  is  in 
seme  way  so  circumstanced  that  these,  her  leading  men,  have  felt  that  at 
this  time  an  overture  of  this  sort  should  be  made  to  the  American  people. 
What  is  it?  It  is,  I assert,  a thing  unmentioned  in  the  book  itself.  It 
possibly  has  not  even  a name  among  those  who  wrote  these  articles.  It  is 
sensed,  rather  than  seen;  it  is  apprehended,  rather  than  felt.  Japan  is 
today  like  a fowl  which,  crouching  close  to  earth,  is  conscious  of  a hovering 
enemy,*  high  in  the  distance,  which  it  dees  not  see.  With  the  socialistic 
autocracies  of  Europe,  whose  internal  economic  administrations  make  peri- 
odic wars  a neces_sity  to  purge  themselves  of  population — with  such  powers 
present  on  Asiatic  soil,  interlaced  in  the  internal  affairs  of  China  in  such  a 
way  that  when  they  pull  apart  the  soil  goes  with  them,  with  such  a state  of 
things  existing,  Japan  feels  herself  surrounded  by  those  who  on  the  instant 
may  become  her  foes;  who,  indeed,  unless  conditions  change,  must  inevitably 
gravitate  into  such  by  the  force  of  influences  which  she  senses  but  does  not 
understand.  In  this  environment  Japan,  pushing  her  way  into  larger 
territorial  domain,  made  necessary  in  order  to  establish  somewhat  an  equi- 
librium in  Asia,  as  well  as  to  prevent  areas  falling  into  the  hands  of  those 
who  would  hold  them  to  her  injury,  finds  herself  calling  for  an  array  of 
arms  which  her  resources  cannot  sustain.  She  realizes  that  she  must  possess 
a military  and  naval  establishment  sufficiently  extensive  to  meet  not  only 
the  war  footing  of  the  European  nation  in  Asia,  but  such  of  its  resources 
in  Europe  as  may  upon  occasion  be  detached  from  thence  for  Asiatic 
service ; and  she  is  not  safe  unless  this  equipment  equals  that  of  the  strongest 
European  power  on  Asiatic  territory.  As  the  more  she  extends  her  colonial 
domain  the  larger  must  be  her  armament,  her  expansion  becomes  a peril. 
If  she  does  not  expand  she  is  defenselessly  weak;  if  she  does  expand  she 
may  thereby  be  made  still  weaker.  In  this  predicament  Japan  turns  toward 
her  powerful  friend  of  the  times  past,  her  patron  of  old,  who  called  her 
forth,  and  whose  protege  she  became.  She  does  not  know  why  she  so  turns, 
but  she  senses  security  in  American  good  will.  She  does  not  expect  us  to 
help  her  in  future  wars  with  arms  and  men,  and  yet  it  seems  that  in 
American  sympathy  there  is  some  quality  for  her  benefit  as  strong  or 
perhaps  stronger  than  these.  She  does  not  know  what  it  is,  but  surely  it  is 
something' — an  enormous  resource,  a great  property  to  the  nation,  this 
brotherly,  almost  fatherly  friendship  of  the  Americans.  And  what  is  the 
more  tragic,  this  vast  attribute  Japan  feels  and  apprehends  that  through 
some  influence,  in  no  way  her  fault,  she  has  lost  or  is  threatened  with 
losing.  What  is  then,  this  thing  that  has  in  it  the  meaning  of  American 
friendship  ? This  also  is  not  patent.  Japan,  these  men  of  Japan  who 
write  this  book,  grope  about  in  the  condition  to  find  it.  They  sense  it;  but 
who  shall  lay  hands  on  it  and  hold  it  aloft — who  shall  point  it  out?  Not 
one  of  these  writers  compass  it,  yet  each  feels  it  exists.  What  is  it?  It  is 
Light  ! It  is  that  same  light  that  has  been  pouring  from  America  into 
Japan  since  the  day  of  Perry’s  arrival  in  Uraga  Bay.  It  stirred  Japan 


into  a vitalized  action,  and  increasing  in  volume  with  its  forward  movement, 
it  dissolved  all  obstacles  within  Japan  and  brought  the  nation  to  a unit  in 
the  furtherance  of  its  progress.  Now,  however,  Japan  feels  that  in  some 
manner  which  she  does  not  understand,  something  has  gone  wrong.  She 
apprehends  the  wrong  state  of  things,  but  dees  not  identify  its  fact  or  its 
cause.  Instinct  moves  her,  nevertheless,  to  reach  out  toward  us,  not  really 
conscious  that  what  she  would  get  from  us,  were  good  will  normally  existant, 
would  be  that  which  she  really  needs,  that  which  once  moved  freely  and 
which  has  been  impaired,  namely  light. 

But  how  has  the  inflow  of  this  light  been  affected,  how  has  it  been  really 
impaired — or  is  it  indeed  true  that  it  is  impaired;  and  is  it  true  that  its 
impairment  is  genuinely  the  thing  that  today  makes  uneasy  the  heart  of 
every  knowing  Japanese?  How?  I shall  tell  you;  and  in  so  doing  I shall 
mention  the  largest  fact  amongst  you,  and  which  none  of  your  writers,  who 
seem  in  your  bock  to  regard  almost  every  salient  thing  that  is  Japanese, 
have  said  a word  on.  You  will  remark  that  after  you  had  imbibed  from 
the  west  a certain  modicum  of  light,  there  came  upon  your  people  a desire 
to  go  severally  into  the  regions  of  this  light,  to  get  into  the  fullness  of  it, 
and  mingle  with  it  at  its  source.  Your  rich  became  tourists,  your  poor 
became  emigrants.  Respectively  in  degree  as  they  were  able  to  proceed, 
they  Avent.  Some  Avere  “travelers  for  curiosity  or  pleasure”;  some  were 
students  seeking  matriculations;  some  AArere  merchants  seeking  trade;  some 
AA'ere  laborers  seeking  Avork;  all  were  men  and  Avomen  in  quest  of  knowledge. 
This  they  acquired,  in  due  course,  and  in  due  course  they  returned  to  Japan. 
The  mo\rement  AATas,  indeed,  at  no  time  large,  but  it  began  small  and  yearly 
gre\AT,  and  as  the  westward  fioAv  acquired  strength  the  eastward  return  kept 
pace  with  the  westward  growth.  Thin  edges  of  the  movement  started  up 
with  other  nations  of  the  illuminated  Avest ; Canada,  Australia,  and  beyond. 
Why  did  they  thus  proceed?  What  was  the  effect  of  this  movement?  It 
was  a stream  of  western  knoA\dedge  floA\Ting  into  the  life  of  Japan.  The 
returned  pilgrims  came  enriched  AA'itli  neAV  information,  new  ideas,  neAv 
plans;  many  bearing  material  wealth  which  their  activities  in  the  A\Test, 
during  all  the  period  of  their  residence  here,  had  enabled  them  to  acquire. 
They  returned  to  take  up  the  thread  of  their  lives  in  their  old  home,  amid 
the  scenes  they  loved,  and  among  the  people  of  whom  they  were  a part. 
Possessed  of  Avestern  knoAA'ledge,  they  proceeded  to  put  this  into  practice 
amidst  their  erstwhile  surroundings.  A thousand  things  about  them  with 
which  they  have  to  deal  manifest  to  them  immediate  need  of  improvement. 
A thousand  opportunities  for  industry  appear  which  before  were  unseen. 
These  people  set  to  work.  Their  considerable  wealth  which  they  have 
brought  Avith  them  aids  in  their  new  endeavors.  What  does  the  nation  gain 
from  this?  It  gains  uplift,  development — gains  it  in  the  only  Avay  it  can 
get  it,  viz.,  by  increased  knoAA'ledge  of  the  people. 

This  process  going  on,  five  thousand,  ten  thousand,  twenty  thousand 
people  per  year  returning,  in  a small  nation,  the  flow  ever  annually  increas- 


6 


ing,  the  nation  from  the  start  felt  the  vigor  of  this  new  light  and  life 
permeate  all  her  veins.  Japan  was  rising  rapidly,  stupendously;  the 
Japanese  heart  beat  strong,  her  breast  was  buoyant;  the  future  of  Japan 
was  big  with  promise.* *  Had  this  gone  on  Japan  would  indeed  have  become 
the  great  nation  which  her  far-sighted  men  believed  were  her  possibilities 
and  her  destiny.  How  little  would  she  have  cared  for  the  European 
gathering  under  his  national  colors  on  Asiatic  soil.  With  her  industries 
bristling  with  new  and  ever  new  enterprises,  with  the  larger  ones  growing 
rapidly  larger,  her  domestic  exchanges  vastly  increasing,  her  foreign  com- 
merce enormously  expanding,  Japan  could  have  pushed  forward  her  terri- 
torial boundaries  to  embrace  new  lands  and  compass  new  peoples  with  every 
confidence  and  with  every  hope. 

But  suddenly,  as  a bolt  from  a clear  sky,  comes  a mandate  from  the 
west,  that  this  light  which  has  been  pouring  in  upon  her  through  her 
returned  migrants,  is  to  stop ; the  migrants  themselves  are  to  be  no  more. 
The  several  thousands  gathered  in  the  west  may,  of  course,  return  as  they 
will ; but  thenceforward  no  new  ones  may  come.  The  school  of  the  west  is 
shut  in  the  face  of  Japan.  Wisdom  of  the  western  sort  is  henceforth  to  be 
denied  her ; she  must  grow  wise,  if  she  will,  through  whatever  processes  she 
may  engender,  internally  and  alone. 

Japan  received  the  blow,  not  comprehending  its  meaning.  The  fiat 
seems  to  be  directed  only  at  her  laborers;  others  may  go  forth  as  before. 
This  seems  to  ease  the  situation  somewhat.  “A  laborer  does  not  amount  to 
much,  anyhow,”  she  thinks;  “if  he  cannot  go  into  the  west,  he  can  stay  at 
home;  we  need  him  here.  Formosa,  Korea,  Saghelien,  even  Manchuria, 
there  are  lots  of  places  he  may  go  where  Japan  will  be  benefited  by  his 
presence.”  Japan  forgets  that  her  people  are  nearly  all  laborers.  It  is 
only  the  few  of  her  population  who  are  workers  with  the  mind,  the  multi- 
tude are  workers  with  the  hands;  and  of  her  mind  workers,  they  for  the 
most  part  in  their  youth  were  hand  workers.  She  forgets  that  the  state  of 
being  a laborer  is  a mere  occupation,  and  that  of  those  who  are  laborers, 
the  larger  number  are  by  nature  capacitated  to  be  workers,  in  greater  or  less 
degree,  with  the  mind,  and  to  become  such  they  lack  only  light  and  oppor- 
tunity. So  as  time  passes  Japan  finds  that  while  the  edicts  of  the  west 
keeping  out  her  people  seemingly  operate  upon  laborers  only,  yet  in  truth 
all  classes  are  held  from  proceeding  thence.  The  movement  to  the  United 
States  shrinks  from  thirty  thousand  two  hundred  and  twenty-six*  per  year, 
to  seven  hundred  and  fifty-ninef  new  arrivals  per  year,  almost  half  of 
which  latter  is,  perhaps,  comprised  of  her  official  or  semi-official  representa- 

*The  growth  of  one  port,  for  instance,  Kobe,  during  the  period  of  this  migration  from 
1897  about  when  it  began,  to  1907  when  it  ended,  rose  from  740,851  to  5-, 497, 782  net 
registered  tons;  an  increase  of  the  astonishing  percentage  of  641.8.  This,  while  coincident 
with,  is  not  to  be  attributed  altogether  to  freedom  of  migration  during  that  period.  The 
billion  dollars  indemnity  which  Japan  received  from  China  had  much  to  do  with  this 
increase.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  this  money  would  have  been  far  less  efficiently  used, 
had  free  migration  not  existed. 

*The  figures  for  1907. 

tThe  figures  for  1911,  the  latest  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Immigration  which  my 
library  happens  to  contain,  or  which  I have  been  able  to  find  on  this  Coast. 


7 


tives  and  their  suites.  And  what  has  transpired  with  the  United  States 
has  happened  or  is  in  like  manner  happening  with  the  whole  white  world. 
Canada,  Australia,  Mexico,  Latin  America  having  now  set  in  upon  the 
policy  of  exclusion  of  the  yellow  man  without  reference  to  his  nationality. 

How  does  this  effect  Japan?  You  men  who  have  written  this  book — 
you  feel  it,  yet  you  have  not  spoken  it.  Perhaps  you  do  not  recognize  it, 
do  not  realize  it,  no  more  than  do  we  here  on  this  coast,  and  in  this  nation. 
If  we  did,  we  would  wipe  out  these  exclusion  laws  at  the  next  session  of 
Congress,  opened  with  a message  read  by  the  President  from  the  Speaker’s 
rostrum  denouncing  these  terrible  and  evil-breeding  laws.  But  we  do  not 
realize  the  condition,  for  the  operation  of  the  forces  which  these  laws  invoke 
is  silent ; those  forces  are  not  dynamic,  they  are  repressive ; there  shall  be 
explosions  in  the  end,  loud  and  supernal  enough,  but  the  processes  which 
produce  such  violence  are  subterranean.  What  is  it  that  they  do  and  are 
doing?  They  are  checking  the  development  of  Japan!  They  are  holding 
Japan  back  in  that  progress  so  auspiciously  started,  and  needed  absolutely 
by  her  if  she  is  to  stand  off  the  incursions  of  the  white.  Unless  this  light  is 
restored  to  her,  which  can  be  done  only  by  a resumption  of  free  migration 
with  the  west,  her  doom  is  already  sealed.  Without  this,  let  her  spread  in 
territory  as  she  will,  she  can  but  make  things  worse.  The  uplift  of  a nation 
cannot  be  effected  through  the  sole  vehicle  of  home  teaching.  The  nation 
must  become  imbued  with  western  ideals,  and  this  can  only  be  attained 
through  western  contact,  and  western  contact  is  western  migration.  Unless 
this  is  resumed,  and  in  full,  free  volume,  Japan  must  succumb  to  the  white 
invader.  But  two  nations  of  the  Orient  are  now  left  with  native  rulers,  if 
we  disregard  the  anomalous  condition  of  the  kingdom  of  Siam,  ready  to  fall 
within  whatever  European  hand  shall  close  upon  it.  No  one  here  on  this 
Coast  seems  to  have  thought  of  the  position  of  the  United  States,  should 
the  military  despotisms  of  Europe  divide  among  themselves  the  Orient.  The 
sympathy  of  the  United  States  with  Japan  in  her  Russian  war,  was  a sym- 
pathy which  all  shared  but  none  understood.  There  was  abroad  an  instinct- 
ive feeling  that  for  some  reason  which  we  could  not  explain  we  wanted,  not 
particularly  Japan  to  win,  but  we  wanted  Russia  to  fail.  It  was  just  that 
same  sort  of  feeling  that  moves  these  thirty-five  Japanese  to  reach  out 
toward  us  in  this  book.  They  want  our  good  will,  they  really  know  not 
why — it  would  comfort  them  to  possess  it.  It  comforted  us  to  know  that 
Russia  had  failed.  Why?  Because  we  were  silently  apprehensive  of  what 
it  might  mean  to  us  to  have  a gigantic  European  power,  absolute  in  gov- 
ernment, military  in  instinct,  facing  us  on  the  Pacific  in  the  possession  of 
millions  of  men  for  ivhose  lives  she  did  not  care,  able  in  a twelve-month  to 
turn  them  into  trained  soldiers  for  our  destruction.  This  is  what  made  us 
wish  well  for  Japan  in  that  contest;  it  is  the  fear  of  this  aggression  that 
moves  Japan  toward  us  now.  In  the  presence  of  a menace  as  terrible  as  it 
is  real,  we  have  the  profoundest  interest  in  Japan’s  rise  and  development. 
It  is  necessary  for  our  safety,  here  on  this  Coast,  that  she  become  strong 


8 


and  able  as  a civilized  state  of  the  highest  order.  That  her  productivity  be 
increased  in  all  the  ways  that  modern  knowledge  can  aid  her;  that  her 
people  become  skilled  in  handling  all  the  appliances  and  methods  of  modern 
science.  We  have  permitted  ignorance,  selfishness  and  viciousness,  to  inter- 
pose laws  which  have  shut  off  the  great  source  of  her  light — migration.  We 
know  not  what  we  have  done.  Our  thinking  people — and  it  is  thought  that 
really  rules  wherever  men  exist — do  not  understand  the  condition.  No  one 
has  ever  come  forward  to  point  out  their  danger  to  them.  The  peril  of 
Japan  is  our  peril;  the  strengthening  of  Japan  is  our  protection.  We  must 
help  the  native  governments  of  Asia  to  maintain  their  sovereignties.  We 
have  nothing  to  fear  from  them;  we  have  everything  to  fear  should  their 
sovereignties  pass  into  European  hands.  This  “war  with  Japan”  talk  of 
which  we  hear  so  much  in  the  United  States,*  does  not  mean  war  with  Japan 
under  its  native  sovereignty.  It  means  that  stupendous  war  which  shall 
transpire  with  the  European  power  in  possession  of  its  share  of  the  parti- 
tioned Orient  and  whom  we  shall  offend.  It  is  a war  which  every  thinking 
man  on  this  Coast  senses  even  though  it  be  half  a century  ahead.  It  will 
occur  only  if  existing  conditions  shall  continue,  and  Japan  pass  from  her 
native  hands.  The  inevitable  cause  of  this  to-be  war  is  felt  though  it  is  not 
recognized.  It  will  arise  as  all  vast  wars  have  arisen,  from  the  pressure  of 
population  against  barriers  which  prevent  migration.  During  the  life  of  a 
nation  population  may  outgrow,  not  the  land  (which  is  synonymous  with 
subsistence)  of  the  nation,  but  the  knowledge  of  the  nation.  Imbue  a people 
with  sufficient  knowledge,  they  have  always  abundance  of  land  for  their 
subsistence.  The  site  of  the  City  of  New  York  was  too  small  an  area  to 
serve  a hundred  Indians ; it  is  far  larger  than  is  required  to  serve  five 
million  moderns.  The  difference  between  the  modern  and  the  Indian  is 
knowledge.  The  Manhattan  Indian  moved  out  and  made  war  on  the  people 
of  the  adjacent  tribes.  Accumulated  population,  pressing  upon  subsistence 
without,  called  for  reducing  the  tribal  numbers  of  population  on  one  hand, 
and  destroying  those  adjacent  who  preyed  upon  wild  life — the  aliment  of 
the  Indian — thereby  reducing  the  volume  of  food  supply.  The  miserable 
Indians  did  not,  perhaps,  recognize  the  cause  which  was  driving  them 
against  their  fellows  across  the  Hudson;  some  trifle  probably  gave  rise  to 
the  war.  But  in  contemplating  the  true  causes  which  move  men  in  large 
actions,  we  must  not  consider  as  the  cause  the  punctilio  which  immediately 
precipitates  the  conflict;  we  regard  the  effect  when  the  action  is  over;  and 
whatever  the  result  is  in  the  eyes  of  nature,  that  was  the  real  purpose  of 


*The  Hears!  News  Service,  in  a dispatch  published  several  years  ago,  dated  Wash- 
ington January  11th,  said: 

Official  Washington  is  discussing  with  zest  today  a speech  made  by  Supreme  Court 
Justice  John  M.  Harland  last  night  at  the  annual  dinner  of  the  Navy  League.  The  speech 
was  received  with  enthusiasm  by  the  guests,  among  whom  were  government  officials, 
congressmen,  and  others  prominent  in  official  life. 

“I  believe,”  said  Justice  Harland,  ‘‘that  we  will  see  within  the  next  ten  years  an 
army  of  perhaps  five  million  men  in  China,  drilled  and  instructed  by  the  Japanese;  and 
when  that  time  comes  they  will  be  in  position  to  say  to  us  of  the  white  race:  ‘You  keep 
your_  country ; we  will  keep  this  country;  get  out.’ 

‘‘I  don’t  say  we  will  have  war  in  the  near  future;  but  some  time  it  seems  certain  that 
there  will  be  a conflict  between  the  yellow  and  the  white  races  that  will  shake  the  earth.” 


9 


the  war.  Reading  history  from  the  standpoint  of  results  of  great  move- 
ments of  men,  we  see  that  the  cause  of  all  such  vast  mutations  which  the 
world  has  experienced,  has  been  the  violation  of  the  natural  law  of  inter- 
course amongst  mankind.  Where  there  was  no  intercourse  between  a civili- 
zation and  a great  people  in  darkness,  the  latter  have  invariably  overthrown 
the  former.  The  Mena  Tekel  Upharsin  of  this  is,  that  the  nation  which 
holds  a civilization  is,  for  its  own  safety,  bound  to  spread  it.  The  Franks, 
the  Scythians,  the  Goths,  when  their  numbers  became  greater  than  their 
knowledge,  pushed  toward  the  light  of  the  Roman  Empire  and  submerged 
that  civilization  with  their  multitudes.  The  barbarian  of  central  Europe 
when  his  increase  exceeded  his  ignorance,  moved  toward  the  only  light  then 
existing,  that  of  the  East,  and  inundated  the  Holy  Land  with  his  numbers. 
In  both  instances  they  overthrew  decadent  civilizations  and  brought  from 
thence  into  the  home  of  the  barbarian  the  light  which  had  been  denied  him 
by  the  conquered  peoples. 

Perhaps  I can  better  explain  what  I mean  by  the  numbers  of  a nation 
outrunning  its  knowledge,  by  a concrete  example : Take  the  instance  of 
the  flood  district  o'f  China,  the  region  of  the  Yellow,  Huai,  and  Ko  Rivers. 
But  for  the  recurrent  overflows  this  vast  tract  would  turn  off  two  large 
crops  per  year;  whereas  it  has  for  a long  time  yielded  not  more  than  two 
crops  in  five  years ; hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  inhabitants  in  consequence 
have  starved,  and  are  starving.  Nothing  is  more  pitiful  than  the  tales  of 
suffering  and  woe  that  come  out  of  that  vast  territory,  where  Nature,  with 
her  inexorable  hand,  is  smiting  whole  populations  in  her  process  of  reducing 
aggregates  to  accord  with  the  knowledge  they  possess.  If  this  district  and 
these  people  be  let  alone  the  latter  will  die  off,  until  the  number  is  reached 
that  the  country  in  the  condition  that  nature  has  thrust  upon  it  will  sustain. 
While  this  is  going  on,  however,  scores  of  thousands  of  the  venturesome 
men  escape,  become  bandits,  pillaging  the  peaceful  people  of  other  parts 
of  China ; better  die  the  quick  death  of  the  executioner,  than  perish  amid 
those  you  love  who  die  with  you  of  the  slow  agonies  of  starvation.  China’s 
governmental  problems  in  the  region  become  tremendously  multiplied  and 
accentuated.  She  must  deal  with  lawlessness,  with  people  who  can  con- 
tribute no  taxes,  who  must  even  be  sustained  over  long  periods  at  public 
cost,  if  the  lives  of  any  are  to  he  preserved.  Sickness,  misery  and  death; 
this  is  the  portion  of  millions,  the  populations  of  entire  states.  I wonder 
if  those  men  of  San  Francisco,  with  their  stump  and  other  speeches  and 
their  newspapers,  who  have  caused  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to 
adopt  against  the  Chinese  people  the  policy  of  exclusion,  shutting  them 
from  the  light  of  this  country  and  holding  them  in  darkness,  have,  in  any 
phases  of  their  several  psychologies,  ever  been  touched  for  a moment  with 
the  consciousness  that  they  hav)  been  the  cause  of  these  deaths!  Or 
whether  they  are  aware  or  feel  t.iat  somewhere  in  the  blue  ether  of  space 
there  are  angels  who  are  charging  against  their  accounts  the  suffering  and 
death  which  has  befallen  these  people ; for  it  would  have  followed  as  the 


10 


night  the  day  that  had  exclusion  of  Chinese  never  been  adopted  in  this 
country,  China  would,  within  the  period  of  these  past  thirty  years,  have 
had  hundreds  of  men,  educated  in  the  United  States,  enlightened  in  the 
science  of  flood  control,  who  would  have  returned  to  their  native  lands, 
addressed  themselves  to  the  physical  conditions  in  the  basins  of  these  rivers, 
and  who  would  have  turned  the  waters  to  fixed  channels  and  secured  the 
lands  to  the  people,  even  converting  the  waters  from  elements  of  destruction 
to  purveyors  of  beneficence  through  their  distribution  in  irrigation.  China 
would  long  since  have  had  such  men,  I say,  together  with  men  skilled  in 
finance  promotion,  who  would  have  arranged  the  means  whereby  the  funds 
to  effect  the  improvement  could  have  been  obtained.  But,  shut  off  from 
western  light,  she  had  no  such  men.  Even  her  rulers  were  unacquainted 
with  any  means  to  avert  the  doom  with  which  it  was  assumed  the  gods  had 
visited  the  people;  Li  Hung  Chang,  the  most  advanced  of  her  statesmen, 
fell  upon  his  face  on  the  banks  of  the  Yellow  and  implored  the  hand  of 
heaven  to  abate  the  vengeance  of  the  evil  spirit  whose  wrath  was  presented 
in  the  river’s  rise.  The  prayers  of  Li  were  futile.  God  does  not  work  that 
way.  His  demand  is  upon  men  to  use  their  intellects  to  evolve  light,  as 
their  numbers  increase,  and  to  deal  with  nature  through  the  processes  of 
the  mind.  God  is  benign.  He  does  not  demand  of  men  impossibilities. 
He  does  not  make  it  imperative  that  light  shall  come  forth  from  these 
darkened  minds  of  China.  If  he  did,  provision  would  be  made  in  China 
for  such  evolution.  He  will  reveal  His  light  where  conditions  for  its  recep- 
tion are  most  favorable,  and  when  bestowed,  it  is  there  by  Him  delivered 
for  the  use  of  all  men.  And  let  me  tell  you,  my  brother,  if  you  think  that 
this  universe  is  held  and  regulated  by  haphazard  or  by  chance,  that  there 
is  not  an  over  ruling  Power,  in  Whose  hand  lies  every  detail  of  life  and 
action,  from  the  whirling  gases  of  the  spiral  nebula  to  the  movement  of 
my  fingers  as  I drive  this  pen,  every  thought,  every  impulse,  every  deed — 
if  you  believe  there  is  not  such,  I say  to  you,  you  have  never  delved  deeply 
for  truth.  No  man  who  thinks  or  tries  to  think  profoundly  in  the  realms 
of  human  action,  but  who  at  every  stretch  and  at  every  turn  stands  face 
to  face  with  God,  and  he  knows  it.  Not  through  theological  dogma  or 
sectarian  tenets  have  I reached  this  conclusion;  for  I have  no  church  and 
no  creed ; but  I have  groped  my  way  through  darkness  to  the  Great  Light 
and  I know  that  this  universe  and  all  that  in  it  is,  is  controlled  by  Law; 
harmonious,  benevolent,  just,  beautiful  in  its  nature  and  effects,  but  to 
disobey  which,  and  persevere  in  disobedience,  inevitably  culminates  in 
death.  The  strife  of  the  mind  is  to  see  His  laws,  and  seeing,  to  show  them 
to  men,  that  they  may  be  obeyed,  for  in  such  obedience,  and  in  that  alone, 
there  is  safety  as  we  know  it  on  this  earth.  And  I say  to  you  that  the  laws 
of  exclusion  are  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  God;  that  the  light  which  is 
given  in  one  part  of  the  world,  is  there  descended  for  the  use  of  all.  There 
is  no  greater  crime  than  the  shutting  off  of  this  light  by  the  peoples  who 
receive  it  from  the  peoples  who  need  it,  and  who  for  it  would  migrate  to 


11 


the  place  it  exists  if  allowed,  and  such  inhibition  is  the  very  essence  of  our 
exclusion  laws.  Li  Hung  Chang’s  prayers  were  to  reverse  the  order  of 
nature,  and  such  prayers  always  fail  and  ought  to  fail.  The  millions  in 
the  stricken  district  weltered  in  their  ignorance,  despaired  and  died. 

At  last  there  came  forth  light.  How  the  heart  of  every  American  man 
and  woman  should  be  thrilled  that  to  us,  who  through  the  operation  of  our 
exclusion  statutes  have  befallen  the  people  of  China  with  all  this  disaster, 
is  given  the  privilege  to  change  the  condition  in  those  valleys — to  do  for 
China  that  which,  had  we  allowed  her  of  our  illumination,  she  could  have 
done  for  herself.  The  American  Red  Cross,  one  of  our  few  institutions 
organized  to  carry  benevolence  abroad,  came  upon  the  condition  in  Anhui 
and  Kiangsu,  whither  it  Avent  in  the  cause  of  humanity  to  succor  the 
afflicted.  This  League  looked  upon  the  region  there  with  its  intelligent 
American  eyes,  and  resolved  to  strike  at  the  cause  of  the  trouble.  It 
addressed  itself  to  the  Chinese  gOA^ernment,  and  Charles  Davis  Jameson,  an 
American  engineer,  studied  the  area  and  proposed  a plan  for  flood  preAren- 
tion,  estimating  the  cost  at  some  twenty  millions.  A means  Avas  Avorked 
out  for  financing  the  enterprise,  the  lands  and  their  products  being  bonded 
to  meet  the  payments;  China  gaAre  assent  to  the  undertaking,  and  J.  G. 
White  & Company,  an  American  contracting  firm,  is  said  to  have  under- 
taken to  install  the  improvement.  In  a year  or  two  the  great  scheme  of 
conservation  Avill  be  effected,  and  famine  in  that  district  will  be  at  an  end. 

Famines  are  the  most  primitive  scourges  of  the  human  family.  The 
earliest  endeavor  of  man  at  the  dawn  of  civilization  is  to  make  assured  his 
food  supply,  and  as  he  moves  upward  in  the  civilized  scale  this  tends  ever 
nearer  to  certitude.  We  do  not  have  famines  in  the  United  States;  A\Tith 
us  the  mind  has  almost  attained  mastery  o\Ter  the  conditions  which  produce 
crops.  Crop  shortages  occur,  and  there  are  years  of  abundance,  but  the 
tendency  is  toward  uniformly  plenteous  yields.  If  insects  menace  crops 
Ave  destroy  the  insects;  if  frost  threatens  the  young  fruit,  Ave  pipe  the 
orchards  with  oil,  and  AA'hen  the  mercury  strikes  the  danger  point  the  pots 
are  fired,  the  temperature  of  the  orchard  raised  for  an  hour  or  two,  and 
the  crop  is  saved.  If  any  natural  condition  occurs  that  threatens  crops  in 
any  district,  at  once  that  state  of  things  becomes  the  subject  of  govern- 
mental investigation  and  aid.  Withal,  if  shortage  of  umvonted  severity  in 
any  region  transpires,  ready  transportation  by  railroad  comreys  to  the 
stricken  inhabitants  ample  of  sustenance  from  the  abundance  produced 
elseAA'here,  and  the  resources  of  credit  of  such  people  is  always  sufficient  to 
tide  them  over  for  a season,  while  other  opportunities  of  employment 
abounding  near  about  them  afford  them  means  of  directing  their  labors 
into  channels,  returning  them  self-supporting  remuneration  AAdiile  the  season 
for  new  plantings  is  coming  on.  The  presence  of  a famine  means  that  the 
country  so  suffering  has  not  developed  a civilization  high  enough  to  repair 
the  primitive  defect  of  nature  which  occasions  such,  and  the  famine  in  the 
districts  of  Fukushima,  Amori,  Hokkaido  and  others  in  Japan,  noAv  prevail- 


12 


ing,  are  evidence  of  this  no  less  than  is  the  famine  in  Anhui  and  Kiangsu. 
With  both  nations  light  from  the  fountain  of  the  west  is  necessary  to  lift 
the  suffering  populations  out  of  the  perennial  slough  of  dearth.  In  the 
case  of  China  we  have,  through  the  aid  of  the  Red  Cross,  projected  our 
enlightened  men  into  the  locality  to  install  the  succor ; in  the  case  of  Japan 
what  shall  be  done?  Has  she  yet  developed  men  of  her  own  who  are  able 
to  work  out  her  relief  ? 

Such  stresses  as  famines  and  general  dearth  are  the  conditions  that 
breed  foreign  war.  The  male  inhabitants  of  the  famine  districts  would 
today  welcome  enlistment  into  an  army,  where  they  would  receive  susten- 
ance for  themselves,  and  wages  wherewith  to  sustain  their  families.  Famine 
or  threats  of  famine  have  often  driven  forth  hordes  of  people  in  arms  to 
prey  upon  the  substance  of  others;  and  the  history  of  our  own  day  shows 
that  scarcity  of  food  supply  is  not  always  necessary  to  start  a great  move- 
ment of  unrest.  Impaired  supply  of  mental  food  is  just  as  effective.  The 
Mexican,  shut  away  from  the  United  States  by  our  contract  labor  exclusion 
laws,  is  stirred  with  unrest  by  the  adjacency  of  a civilization  in  which  he 
does  not  share ; so  with  the  Macedonians  against  the  Turk,  so  with  the 
Quang  Tung  Chinese  against  north  China.  It  is  when  wide  unrest  arises 
in  the  Orient,  which  always  occurs  when  population  has  outgrown  knowl- 
edge, that  the  great  Oriental  war  which  the  future  holds  for  us  will  occur. 
It  will  arise  when  the  aggressive  European  powers  have  absorbed  the 
Orient,  and  when  conditions  therein  obtain,  that  foreign  war  or  civil  conflict 
becomes  imperative.  Then  will  come  a hurling  forth  upon  us  of  the  human 
onslaught,  directed  by  the  highest  militarism  of  the  day,  backed  by  the 
resources  of  a vast  European  nation.  For  that  conflict  the  mind  of  the 
Orient  is  now  preparing.  The  cry  of  “Asia  for  the  Asiatics,  down  with 
the  foreigners,”  an  echo  of  the  San  Francisco  sand  lot  cry  of  “America 
for  the  Americans,  the  Chinese  must  go,”  reverberates  at  times  in  both 
China  and  Japan.  Our  perennial  California  legislative  assaults  upon  the 
Orientals*  evokes  mass  meetings,  eat  calls  and  boycotts  of  American  goods 


*There  are  those  who  think  that  Japan  having  taken  so  seriously  the  California  Anti- 
Alien  Land  Act,  there  having  been  incident  to  it  so  much  interposition  of  the  Federal 
authority,  so  many  exchanges  of  diplomatic  notes,  so  much  discussion  in  press  and  public, 
and  so  much  resentment  displayed  by  the  Japanese  populace,  that  the  California  legisla- 
ture will  not,  at  its  forthcoming  sessions,  venture  again  upon  measures  offensive  to  the 
Japanese  people.  Let  me  say  to  all  who  so  think,  that  they  are  mistaken.  The  session  of 
1913  left  much  unfinished  Anti-Japanese  business,  which  the  session  of  1915  will  take  up, 
and  to  some  extent  put  through,  despite  the  existence  of  the  Fair.  The  reason  why  this 
must  be  is  not  understood.  All  California  legislatures  since  the  early  sixties  have  had 
before  them  anti-Asiatic  bills,  and  rancorous  discussions  on  these  measures,  whether 
there  be  legislation  upon  them  or  not,  form  features  of  every  session.  The  reason  of  this 
is  that  the  exclusion  laws  are  restrictive.  They  impair  human  rights;  they  interfere  with 
the  free  going  and  coming  of  people:  they  obstruct  business;  they  are  a constant  source 
of  humiliation  and  exasperation  to  all  who  come  in  contact  with  them,  whites  as  well  as 
Orientals.  Those  who  have  to  deal  with  them — aside  from  the  labor  union  immigrant 
agents  who  enforce  them — for  the  most  part  regard  them  as  outrageous,  as  existing 
through  error  of  policy,  as  doing  no  one  any  good  and  being  a general  harm.  It  is  very 
certain  that,  if  let  alone,  these  laws  would  soon  come  to  be  looked  upon  as  a nuisance,  and 
widespread  demand  would  go  up  for  their  repeal.  Accordingly  they  must  be  periodically 
sustamed  by  some  order  of  popular  demonstration.  The  place  and  time  for  doing  this  is 
at  the  California  legislature.  Here  at  every  session  the  claques  are  manufactured  which 
declaim  to  the  country  that  ‘The  gates  are  closely  guarded,”  and  that  California  still  holds 
to  the  policy  of  Asiatic  exclusion.  The  Chinese  have  long  since  been  so  reduced  in 
numbers  in  the  state  and  their  activities  have  so  subsided,  that  they  are  now  looked  upon 
as  negligible;  the  Japanese,  however,  are  an  enterprising  and  active  people  who  go  into 
business  and  try  to  build  up  themselves  and  their  surroundings.  Any  expression  of  the 

13 


in  the  Orient  wherever  the  name  of  Americans  is  mentioned.  Let  this 
hatred  stew  for  a few  decades,  strengthening  as  its  spasms  recur,  while  we 
here,  under  the  influence  of  those  restrictive  laws  and  doctrines  which  labor 
unionism  has  thrust  upon  us,  tend  toward  that  decadence,  now  so  striking 
a phenomenon  in  that  nation  where  labor  unionism  is  in  largest  efflorescence, 
namely  England.''5  When  such  a condition  gathers  and  obtains,  the  coun- 
tries will  be  ripe  for  war.  We  cannot  tell  in  this  day  what  may  occasion 
the  outbreak.  It  may  be  that  some  corporal  of  a guard  refuses  to  salute  a 
flag;  or  even  that  some  warship  hits  a sunken  mine  in  the  bay;  any  spark 
in  the  carburetter  may  cause  the  explosion,  but  the  real  cause  will  be  the 
hatred  rampant  between  the  people  of  the  two  continents,  which  hatred 
attends  and  grows  upon  non-intercourse,  and  only  disappears  and  is 
replaced  by  good  will  where  mutual  material  interests  arise  between  the 
people,  growing  out  of  the  presence  of  one  in  the  country  of  the  other. 
You  cannot  have  good  will  between  nations,  expressed  by  mere  perfunctory 
salutations  and  professions  of  regard.  Good  will,  active  good  will,  rests 
upon  mutual  material  concerns ; it  does  not  and  cannot  exist  while  these 
do  not  obtain.  For  us  to  have  a continuous  interest  in  the  Orient,  the 
Orientals  must  be  amongst  us  in  considerable  numbers,  and  be  a part  of  our 
population.  The  quiet  which  abides  with  us  for  the  moment  on  the  subject 
of  the  Japanese  is  not  necessarily  an  indication  of  the  presence  of  good 
will;  it  is  equally  an  indication  of  indifference.  The  test  of  good  will 
between  peoples  is  in  the  expressions  that  go  forth  when  some  harm  befalls 

Oriental’s  existence  that  makes  him  noticeable,  makes  him  the  subject  of  opposition; 
wherefore  of  late  years,  the  target  of  the  California  legislature  has  been  the  Japanese. 
The  elements  in  the  Chambers,  also,  who  produce  the  anti-Oriental  disturbances,  are  not 
dismayed  by  the  fact  that  their  performances  draw  attention  and  cause  annoyance  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States  and  the  Department  of  State,  let  alone  the  uneasiness  and 
reproofs  that  come  from  Japan.  These  creators  of  trouble  are  pleased  with  the  notoriety 
they  receive  and  enjoy  the  sunshine  of  the  spotlight.  Anti-Japanese  agitations  will  go  on 
in  California  until  the'  educated  classes  of  the  state  acquire  knowledge  of  the  immigration 
question  and  understand  that  the  entire  policy  is  wrong,  that  we  need  the  Japanese  here, 
and  that  the  more  who  come  to  us  to  work  the  better  off  we  are,  and  that  harm  can 
befall  no  one  in  consequence  of  people  coming  to  help  us  in  our  labors.  'When  the  people 
so  understand  they  will  squelch  the  anti-Japanese  agitator;  but  he  will  exist  flourishingly 
until  that  time,  an  active  creator  of  the  hatreds  stored  up  against  us,  for  which,  unless 
our  policy  be  reversed,  we  must  answer  in  the  future.  Meanwhile  no  expedients  can 
possibly  help  the  situation.  The  talk  in  Washington  at  this  time  of  an  act  of  Congress 
confirming  the  rights  of  Japanese  now  living  in  the  United  States  to  own  and  lease  land, 
and  of  a new  treaty  granting  them  naturalization,  should  not  be  discouraged.  All  things 
possible  favorable  to  Japanese  should  be  welcomed,  provided  there  is  not  coupled  with 
such  accessions  some  denial  of  the  rights  of  others  to  enter  the  country,  or  some  proscrip- 
tion or  differentation  against  them  when  they  are  here.  Under  such  latter  conditions  the 
proposals  should  not  be  accepted.  Any  relaxation  of  our  hard  policy  toward  the  Japanese,, 
however  unaccompanied  bv  a sentiment  arising  through  popular  understanding  of  the 
problem,  will  merely  intensify  the  disturbances  later  to  be  created  by  the  phobists.  The 
only  remedy  is  popular  education  upon  the  subject. 

*There  are  over  one  million  eighty-five  thousand  registered  paupers  in  England,  a 
country  of  about  one-third  the  population  of  the  United  States.  This  widespread  pauper- 
ization is  a logical  corollary  of  the  centripetal  force  in  England’s  industry,  the  labor 
union — a principle  that  centralizes  the  industrial  field  with  a labor  aristocracy  at  the  hub, 
and  at  the  periphery  sloughs  off  millions  into  enforced  idleness  and  destitution.  The 
ve gistcrecl  pauper  has  not  specifically  appeared  in  the  United  States,  in  so  far  as  I am 
aware-  but  unregistered,  he  is  already  here  in  considerable  numbers,  as  witness  our 
roving’  bands  of  1.  W.  W.  The  presence  of  this  perennially  idle  element,  which  soon 
bcomes  physically  unfit  and  psychologically  unwilling  to  encounter  any  labor  task,  consti- 
tutes, in  the  minds  of  many,  an  added  confusion  on  the  immigration  question;  as  where 
the  labor  union  convention  which  recently  met  in  St.  Louis  adopted  a resolution  against 
admitting  to  the  country  any  more  labor  immigrants,  from  whatsoever  nation  they  might 
come,  until  all  out-of-work  persons  in  the  United  States  were  employed.  Such  a closure 
would  be  permanent,  and  constitute  another  milestone  on  the  high  road  to  national 
dissolution;  as  it  is  the  forces  existing  that  produce  the  idle  laborer,  and  the  incoming  of 
those  who  work,  always  superior  in  desire  and  fitness  for  labor  to  this  unemployed  mass, 
produce  the  conditions  which  afford  the  opening  of  jobs  for  the  latter  class.  See 
pp.  30-31  herein. 


14 


the  subjects  of  their  concern.  An  opportunity  was  presented  to  Japan  to 
display  the  degree  of  this  solicitude  when  the  earthquake  calamity  overcame 
San  Francisco  in  1906.  In  that  day  thousands  of  Japanese  were  amongst 
us,  and  our  immigration  of  Japanese  that  year  had  been  over  15,000.  Japan 
sent  for  our  relief  on  that  occasion  the  munificent  sum  of  $250,000  and  we 
accepted  it,  and  forwarded  to  them  the  official  expressions  of  our  thanks. 
When  the  eruption  of  the  volcano  Kagoshima  and  the  incident  earthquakes 
with  attendant  loss  of  life  and  property  on  the  island  of  Hyusliu  happened 
recently,  simultaneous  with  the  prevalence  of  the  vast  famine  in  the  north 
of  Japan,  San  Francisco  manifested  the  same  silence  toward  Japan  that 
usually  obtains  when  Mr.  Tvietmoe  is  engaged  in  court  business  in  Indianap- 
olis, and  the  California  legislature  is  adjourned.  The  Japanese  here  had 
become  very  few,  and  Japan  and  the  Japanese  had  ceased  to  stand  as  any 
factor  in  our  affairs.  The  .leading  gentlemen  of  this  city  who  a year  ago 
sat  at  the  board  of  Mr.  Juichi  Soyeda  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  for  Japan, 
and  told  of  the  current  good  will  hereabouts  for  that  nation,  did  not  come 
forward  with  proposals  of  public  subscription  for  relief  of  the  distressed  in 
the  stricken  districts,  for  the  reason,  without  doubt,  that  they  were  severally 
apprehensive  of  inconvenience  which  might  attend  them  through  their 
advocacy  of  benefit  for  an  unpopular  people.  In  so  far  as  San  Francisco 
went,  one  here  would  never  have  known  that  widespread  suffering  through 
natitral  causes  prevailed  amongst  thousands  of  our  fellows  in  Japan.  The 
President  of  the  United  States  took  action,  however,  made  an  appeal  to  the 
country  for  funds,  and  appointed  the  Red  Cross  League  to  receive  and 
forward  them.  I do  not  know  the  amount  which  the  country  sent,  but  of 
whatever  it  sent  San  Francisco  contributed  eighty-three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents.* 

Good  will,  in  any  effective  degree,  cannot  exist  between  the  people  of 
closed  nations.  The  very  existence  of  closure  is  a state  of  passive  war.  Just 
as  soon  as  intercourse  ceases,  trouble  begins  to  arise.  No  one  in  the  United 
States  ever  heard  any  war  talk  about  ourselves  versus  Japan,  until  the 
Japanese  were  excluded  in  1907.  Talk  of  war  thereupon  instantly  arose, 
the  first  to  remark  it  being  President  Roosevelt.  At  the  time  of  Commodore 
Perry’s  visit  to  Japan  in  1853  Japan  was  a hermit  nation  in  that  she  had 
no  intercourse  with  the  west.  Japan  has  always  hailed  this  visit  of  Perry’s 
as  one  of  the  greatest  events  in  her  national  career,  regarding  it  as  the 
opening  of  the  country  to  the  world,  starting  her  upon  a course  of  real 
progress.  It  would  be  interesting  to  contemplate  in  what  particulars  as 
regards  this  opening  Japan  differs  today  from  her  condition  prior  to  Perry’s 

*At  a later  date  a group  of  members  of  the  Japan  Society  of  America  interested 
themselves  to  procure  contributions  of  San  Francisco,  and  several  hundred  dollars  more 
was  raised;  but  the  effort  bears  out  my  statements,  that  mutual  material  concerns  move 
sympathy.  Various  of  those  on  the  committee  had  interests  in  some  way  related  to  the 
Japanese;  some  were  in  sympathy  with  them  because  of  their  art,  or  through  past 
associations;  some  had  business  relations  with  them.  There  were  none  who  were  doing 
their  work  merely  through  altruistic  concern  because  human  beings  somewhere  were 
suffering.  To  the  contrary,  in  the  case  of  each  committeeman  there  was  a special  reason, 
based  upon  contact  with  Japanese  and  its  incident  sympathy,  why  he  should  interest 
himself  to  succor  their  afflicted. 


15 


visit.  In  one  ease  slie  was  closed  from  within,  and  now  she  is  closed  from 
without.  For  if  her  people  may  not  go  forth  to  take  part  in  the  affairs  and 
interests  of  the  west,  it  would  surely  seem  that  her  “opening”  by  Perry 
would  be  a mere  phraseology.  True,  she  may  send  forward  certain  cargoes 
of  the  few  chief  articles  she  produces,  and  exchange  them  for  effects  of  the 
western  nations;  but  trade  under  such  conditions  will  not  greatly  increase, 
and  it  exists  in  constant  peril  of  being  shut  off  almost  entirely.  When 
western  science  has  produced  synthetic  silk  there  will  be  little  use  for 
Japan’s  cocoons;  and  when  the  next  high  tariff  wave  overcomes  the  Amer- 
ican Congress,  the  South  Carolina  tea  ranch  will  loom  larger  on  the  horizon 
than  it  did  in  189-1  when  in  its  interest  a protective  tariff  was  imposed  upon 
tea,  and  the  American  people  were  required,  to  a large  extent,  through 
incident  high  prices,  to  abandon  the  use  of  that  article,  which  in  turn 
compelled  the  Japanese  tea  farmer  to  uproot  his  trees,  and  the  Japanese 
people  to  forego  a product  with  which  they  "had  been  purchasing  such 
American  goods  as  they  desired;  when  this  incident  again  arises,  I say, 
Hon.  Kahei  Otani  will  find  that  the  President  of  the  United  States  will  not 
extend  to  him  that  cordial  greeting  which  he  received  in  1898  from  Presi- 
dent McKinley,  on  the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  induce  the  American  govern-, 
ment  to  remove  the  duty  on  Japanese  tea;  for  a President  who  would 
harken  to  the  voice  of  the  commerce  of  Japan  in  the  presence  of  the  hatreds 
since  manufactured  in  the  nation  against  the  Japanese  people,  would  be 
instantly  the  target  of  a whirlwind  of  Pacific  Coast  legislative  and  other 
indignation  and  assault.  Nor,  indeed,  would  Japan’s  sense  of  dignity 
permit  her  under  such  circumstances  to  ask  the  concession.  Requests 
between  friends  may  be  freely  made,  which  in  the  presence  of  strained 
relations,  neither  side  would  venture.  What  Japan  needs  and  absolutely 
must  have,  if  she  is  to  hold  herself  in  place,  is  not  only  great  surpluses,  but 
great  variety  of  productions.  Don  C.  Seitz,  managing  editor  of  the  New 
York  “World,”  in  his  article  on  the  “Japanese  Overload,”*  says  Japan  is 
a country  without  surpluses  of  anything  save  raw  silk  and  tea.  He  says : 

“The  village  toothpick-cutter  splits  his  tiny  splints  with  micrometrical 
accuracy,  and  regulates  his  output  with  equal  exactness,  so  that  he  shall 
not  have  one  more  than  may  be  required  to  provide  for  the  next  day  ’s  need 
in  rice  and  pickles.” 

We  have  no  such  toothpick  maker  in  the  United  States.  Why?  Because 
we  make  toothpicks  by  the  million  with  machines.  Our  village  toothpick 
maker  has  had  the  faculty  of  his  hand  multiplied  a hundred  thousand  fold 
by  the  thought  of  some  genius  who  has  devised  a mechanism  which  released 
him  from  a frivolous  toil,  and  dignified  him  with  the  power  of  a producer 
in  large  measures.  What  is  true  of  the  toothpick  maker  is  not  less  a fact 
with  all  other  crafts  and  callings.  The  naked  slave  no  longer  threads  the 
clay  with  straw  to  fashion  sun-dried  brick,  but  restless  ratchets  tear  away 
the  earth  and  stack  the  bricks  by  millions  scarcely  touched  by  human  hands. 

Japan  must  supplant  the  hand  with  the  machine,  the  empiric  with  the 


*Nprth  American  Review,  June  1913 


16 


scientist.  To  have  great  armies  and  navies  and  to  be  able  to  conduct  wars 
in  her  national  defense,  she  must  possess  vast  industrial  power;  must 
multiply  the  industrial  potentiality  of  the  individual  through  use  of  the 
modern  effects  of  the  mind,*  so  that  she  can  not  only  spare  men  from 
industry,  but  can  abundantly  sustain  them,  their  ships  and  munitions  when 
they  are  so  tolled  off.  This  it  is  entirely  possible  for  her  to  do.  There  is  a 
vast  field  of  possible  and  varied  yield  and  manufacture  in  Japan’s  zone  of 
human  action,  through  the  development  of  which  she  may  become  rich, 
great  and  powerful;  but  to  develop  this  requires  thought,  and  thought  is 
not  the  progeny  of  an  arbitrary  aggregate,  of  a specialized  few.  It  arises 
among  the  people  through  general  diffusion  of  knowledge ; not  theoretical, 
book  knowledge,  but  knowledge  fraught  of  experience  in  practical,  human 
contact,  such  as  only  intercourse  supplies.  There  is  no  oligarchy  of  the 
mind.  The  parvenus  of  genius  will  arise  in  the  cotter’s  household  more 
often,  indeed,  than  they  come  forth  from  the  loins  of  belted  knights.  The 
condition  that  generates  the  master  minds  is  freedom,  equality  of  oppor- 
tunity, unimpaired  access  to  knowledge,  the  untrammeled  right  to  venture 
forth  and  go  any  place  where  incentive  calls.  Shut  off  from  migration  with 
the  west,  Japan  is  closed  to  the  stimulus  that  stirs  thought;  is  shut  away 
from  the  region  where  ideas  abound  in  largest  volume.  Japan  at  present 
does  not  recognize  this.  A nation  which  within  the  business  lives  of  living 
men  was  so  tightly  sealed  to  foreign  intercourse  that  to  have  in  one’s 


*Western  civilization  may  be  said  to  express  itself  through  its  methods  and  devices, 
These  are  the  foundations  of  its  industries,  the  creators  of  its  greatness.  Let  me  illustrate 
by  taking  two  industries  resting  upon  inventions,  neither  of  which  are  more  than  fifteen 
years  old — the  automobile  and  the  moving  picture.  The  auto  car,  while  an  invention  long 
anticipated  by  various  contrivances  for  the  utilization  of  steam  in  traction  upon  common 
highways,  came  into  general  use  through  the  invention  by  Daimler  in  1884  of  the  internal 
combustion  engine.  This,  applied  to  a carriage,  was  worked  upon  by  inventors  in  France, 
England  and  the  United  States,  until  last  year,  in  this  country,  the  output  of  the  industry 
was  valued  at  approximately  $.250,000,000,  and  $27,000,000  of  the  product  was  exported. 
The  business  now  engages  hundreds  of  thousands  of  hands  in  its  various  branches,  not 
the  least  of  which  comprises  many  thousands  of  chauffeurs. 

The  moving  picture  device  has  established  an  industry  in  which  $200,000,000  is  said  to 
be  invested  in  the  manufacture  of  films  alone,  giving  employment  to  200,000  persons,  and 
exports  of  these  products  amount  to  over  $6,000,000  annually.  Aside  from  this,  thousands 
in  all  parts  of  the  country  are  employed  in  conducting  shows  through  the  use  of  these 
reproductions. 

Two  other  conspicuous  inventions  now  entering  into  large  industry  are  the  aeroplane 
and  wireless  telegraphy.  But  consider  the  million  others;  to  what  marvelous  uses  is 
paper  applied;  car  wheels,  cog  wheels,  containers  of  all  kinds,  cooking  utensils,  wood  in 
carpentry,  pipes,  clothing — a seemingly  endless  variety  of  objects.  Consider  the  metal, 
aluminum,  extracted  from  clay,  and  brought  into  practical  effect  but  a few  years  ago, 
what  thousands  of  uses  it  now  supplies  and  how  extensive  the  industries  it  supports. 
Take  such  a substance  as  bog  peat  and  consider  the  wealth  of  articles  reduced  from  it; 
carbon  pencils  for  electric  lights,  artificial  wool,  preservatives,  sheep  dip,  paper,  naptha, 
paraffin  wax,  tar,  sulphate  of  ammonia — the  performances  of  science  seem  almost  endless. 
The  United  States  is  replete  with  these  effects,  but  in  Japan  they  are  practically  absent. 
These  works  are  not  the  achievements  of  one,  but  of  many  men,  all  inspired  by  the 
impulse  and  stimulated  by  the  prospects  of  reward  for  doing  something  of  human  benefit 
never  effected  before.  In  a country  in  which  practically  the  entire  population  is  made  up 
of  labor  immigrants  or  their  descendants,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  these  men  are  of 
humblest  origin.  The  chief  amongst  them,  Thomas  A.  Edison,  was  a newsboy.  The 
essential  condition  of  this  vast  realm  of  inventions  has  been  free  atmosphere,  free 
movement  of  the  individual  anywhere  he  may  be  pleased  to  go. 

This  spirit  of  evolution  is  not  essentially  western.  It  is  as  inherent  in  the  Japanese 
mind  as  in  the  American.  Where  Japanese  have  been  placed  in  an  environment  of 
invention  their  researches  produce  results  which  distinguish  them.  Take  the  instance  of 
Prof.  Hideyo  Noguchi  and  Prof.  Jokichi  Takamine,  one  celebrated  in  bacteriology,  the 
other  in  chemistry.  Japanese  have  attained  eminence  in  many  other  departments  of 
science,  but  unexceptionally  where  they  have  been  brought  into  contact  with  the 
knowledge  and  life  of  the  west.  Japan  can  only  develop  a population  amongst  whom 
arises  that  order  of  inventions  that  create  industries  and  so  furnish  higher  kinds  of 
occupation  for  her  people,  by  having  the  freest  opportunity  of  contact  by  her  people  with 
those  of  the  west,  a condition  which  necessarily  entails  entire  freedom  of  migration. 

17 


possession  a foreign  book  was  a crime;  where  an  attempt  to  leave  the 
country  was  punished  with  death ; where  sea-going  ships  were  not  permitted 
to  be  built ; where  foreign  trade  was  interdicted,  and  where  the  only  western 
people  allowed  in  the  country  were  a few  Dutch,  who  were  confined  to  an 
island  80  by  200  feet  in  area — to  the  people  of  such  a country,  it  is  not  at  all 
remarkable  that  they  should  not  view  the  shutting  off  by  the  west  of  their 
migration  as  a matter  of  significance  or  concern.  Japan  for  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  sent  no  migrants  abroad ; what  difference  can  it  make  that 
they  be  now  kept  at  home  ? Aside  from  this,  the  number  of  the  people  who 
went  out  during  the  period  when  the  west  suffered  them  to  come  were  so 
few,  how  could  they  possibly  have  any  influence  upon  Japan’s  develop- 
ment? Perhaps  in  all  the  period  of  the  Meiji  era,  not  over  400,000  of 
Japanese  went  from  Japan  into  the  Avest.  How  could  such  a relatively 
small  number  make  any  impression  upon  the  nation  as  effecting  its  rise, 
even  assuming  that  many  returned  and  brought  with  them  western  knowl- 
edge ? I reply,  the  processes  of  thought  are  extremely  insidious ; we  do  not 
realize  in  many  cases  that  it  is  transpiring  at  all,  and  know  of  its  existence 
mainly  by  comparing  the  present  with  the  past.  A very  few  people 
returning  from  abroad  may  affect  the  entire  nation.  Japan  has  a handful 
of  students  studying  at  colleges  in  the  west ; these  lads  are  constantly 
returning  to  Japan,  where  they  immediately  take  part  in  affairs,  and  exert 
a powerful  influence  upon  the  life  and  development  of  the  country.  The 
roster  of  returned  students  would  not  be  large,  yet  the  influence  of  their 
work  upon  Japanese  progress  has  been  immense.  And  what  is  true  of 
students,  is  true  in  degree  of  every  man  and  woman  of  Japan  who  has 
returned  to  the  country.  A single  returned  emigrant  will  move  to  a wider 
development  his  entire  family  and  a score  of  his  neighbors;  while  the  money 
he  sends  home  during  his  absence,  amounting  to  $100  per  year  per  man, 
leavens  his  household,  and  lifts  the  nation.  Equally  as  great  as  these 
influences  is  the  fact  that  a member  of  a family  abroad  moves  the  interest 
of  those  at  home  with  sympathy  with  the  nation  wherein  he  abides.  The 
minds  of  those  people  are  turned  toward  America  Avhere  the  son  or 
daughter  are  living,  and  are  thereby  receptive  to  every  influence  that 
proceeds  from  thence.  Interest  and  curiosity  are  turned  toward  the 
country;  letters  describing  the  youth’s  surroundings  and  life  are  eagerly 
read;  geography  and  history,  often  the  very  language  is  studied,  and  the 
offspring  of  that  family  remaining  at  home  acquires  new  ideals  and  aspira- 
tions, so  drawn  from  the  country  Avhere  the  brother  is  temporarily  staying. 

Through  the  influence  of  the  few  annually  returning  students  (which 
may  continue  until  the  exclusionists  of  the  west  prohibit  their  entry  as  they 
have  already  threatened  to  do),  added  to  the  literature  of  the  Avest,  which 
she  is  free  to  receive,  Japan  might  meet  her  earthquakes,  eruptions,  torna- 
does, pestilences,  famines  and  else,  that  tend  to  destroy  civilization,  and 
move  sloAATly  upward;  but  she  is  not  at  liberty  to  proceed  slowly;  she  is 
hooked  on  to  the  world  movement,  and  she  must  keep  its  pace.  She  must 


18 


develop,  and  that  rapidly,  if  she  wishes  to  hold  her  own  in  this  movement, 
else  she  will  inevitably  succumb.  If  Japan  should  now  attempt  to  close  her 
doors  to  the  world  as  she  did  in  1641,  how  long  would  her  native  sover- 
eignty last?  How  many  years  will  it  last  with  her  doors  closed,  as  is  now 
the  case?  Japan  did  not  willingly  open  herself  to  the  world  in  1854.  She 
would  gladly  have  remained  a terra  clausum.  It  was  Perry’s  squadrons, 
the  later  bombardment  by  the  British  fleet  of  the  capital  of  the  Satsuma 
daimyo  at  Kagoshima,  and  the  subsequent  destruction  of  the  Choshu  bat- 
teries at  the  sea  of  Shimonoseki,  that  destroyed  the  exclusion  party  in 
Japan  and  convinced  the  common  sense  of  that  country  that  the  day  had 
come  when  isolation  could  no  longer  be  maintained;  that  unless  the  science 
and  methods  of  the  west  were  admitted  the  country  would  be  helpless  in 
the  presence  of  the  white  invader,  and  would  be  consequently  overrun  by 
him.  As  there  are  men  now  living  who  knew  the  days  of  the  former  closure, 
so  there  are  men  how  living,  I assert,  who,  unless  exclusion  by  the  west  be 
withdrawn,  will  live  in  the  days  when  the  domain  of  Europe  will  extend 
to  the  shores  of  the  Asian  Pacific. 

Nor  is  this  closure  of  which  I speak  one-sided.  We  who  have  closed 
the  Orient  are  in  like  manner  closed  against  the  Orient.  As  I have  often 
elsewhere  remarked,  it  is  the  nature  of  error  to  proceed  along  its  course 
until  its  effects  become  intolerable,  when  the  error  will  either  be  corrected, 
or  its  effects  being  so  involved  as  to  conceal  the  error,  there  is  destruction 
through  war  of  those  who  practice  it.  It  is  only  truth  that  is  static  and 
unchangeable.  That  the  closing  of  this  nation  against  the  world  which  will 
be  secured  when  all  migration  is  shut  off,  will  produce  war,  there  can  be  no 
possible  doubt.  That  to  shut  off  migration  with  half  the  human  race  will 
in  like  manner  produce  war,  there  can  also  be  no  question.  No  nation  can 
close  herself  to  the  world  or  to  half  the  world,  and  not  bring  upon  herself 
the  war  that  isolation  induces.  The  resistless  demand  of  mankind  for  inter- 
course with  mankind  will  overcome  all  barriers,  and  press  human  relations 
upon  peoples  desirous  of  dwelling  beyond  the  pale  of  such.  It  was  so  with 
Japan  and  with  China  and  must  likewise  be  so  with  us.  Japan’s  closure 
was  never  more  perfect  than  that  to  which  the  United  States  is  now  rapidly 
tending.  We  have  shut  out  the  Chinese  by  statutory  enactment;  the 
Japanese  are  inhibited  by  a convention  note  through  which  Japan  withholds 
her  laborers,  which,  experience  shows,  makes  practically  everyone  else  un- 
willing to  come.  The  Hindus  are  refused  admission  upon  a mere  adminis- 
trative rescript  without  the  need  of  any  law.  In  effect,  all  Asiatics  are 
excluded.  Now,  as  for  Europe ; the  advocates  of  exclusion  have  approached 
the  European  warily;  they  do  not  stab  his  government  with  a paper  billet 
and  demand  its  signature  as  we  did  with  China,  or  ride  rough  shod  over  a 
defenceless  people  as  we  did  with  exhausted  Japan  at  the  close  of  the 
Russian  war.  They  propose  measures  of  stealth.  “Objectionable  immigra- 
tion” is  to  be  curtailed.  This  immigration  is  such  as  “will  not  assimilate 
with  our  civilization”;  that  “lower  our  standards  of  living”;  that  “expose 


19 


our  working  people  to  unsafe  and  unsanitary  working  conditions”;  that 
“interfere  with  the  maintenance  by  the  labor  unions  of  the  American 
standard  of  wages”;  and  so  on  ad  libitum.  The  particular  races  against 
whom  this  endeavor  is  now  aimed  are  the  inhabitants  of  Southern  Europe — 
the  Romans  of  Caesar,  the  Greeks  of  Pericles;  these  are  the  men  at  whom 
the  exclusionist  orator  in  Congress,  at  the  behest  of  his  labor  union  con- 
stituents, now  points  the  finger  of  scorn  and  says  they  are  unfit  to  dwell 
upon  the  soil  of  the  United  States.  Exclusionists  devise  certain  expedients 
of  circumvention  for  resisting  the  entry  of  these  people.  Several  of  these 
are  “increase  of  head  tax”;  “a  differential  increase  on  single  as  against 
married  men”;  “exacting  of  an  immigrant  the  qualification  of  an  applicant 
for  enlistment  into  the  United  States  army”;  “arbitrarily  limiting  the 
number  admitted  to  a fixed  percentage  based  upon  the  number  of  such 
nation  already  within  the  country”;  “the  literacy  test,’’  etc..  It  will  be 
remarked  that  the  above  are  only  proposals.  They  are  like  the  seven 
varieties  of  bills  brought  forward  in  the  last  California  legislature  foi 
disabling  Japanese  and  Chinese  by  restricting  the  occupations  in  which 
they  may  engage  in  this  state.  Of  these,  however,  the  alien  land  bill 
passed— sufficient  indeed  for  one  turn  of  the  legislative  calabash,  prepar- 
atory, as  freely  stated  in  that  body  during  debate,  for  the  next  session.  So 
among  those  proposed  in  Congress;  the  literacy  test  scheme  passed. 

By  this  latter  it  was  planned  that  any  immigrant  who  could  not  read 
a slip  handed  him  by  an  inspector  containing  forty  words  in  his  own 
language,  should  be  excluded  from  entry.  The  physical  strength,  the  moral 
character,  the  intellectual  stamina  of  the  immigrant  was  not  to  be  taken 
into  account;  he  was  to  be  subjected  to  trial  of  book  learning;  a reversion 
to  the  old  principle  of  benefit  of  clergy.  If  the  man  had  been  raised  amidst 
surroundings  which  denied  him  the  opportunity  of  acquiring  schooling,  his 
misfortune  was  now  to  be  used  against  him  by  the  country  whose  institu- 
tions were  assumed  to  be  based  on  freedom,  and  whose  boast  it  was  in  time 
past  that  men  are  equal.  The  exclusionists  who  brought  forward  this 
project  of  oppression  in  fact  cared  nothing  about  education  of  the  immi- 
grant. Forty  words  of  printing  could  not  make  a man  better  or  worse, 
and  while  the  subterfuge  of  literacy  was  much  talked  upon  during  the 
debates,  it  was  nevertheless  understood. that  the  real  purpose  of  the  proposed 
legislation  was  to  keep  people  out  of  the  country.  It  was  estimated  that 
30  per  cent  of  those  who  came  would  not  qualify  upon  the  test  arranged, 
whereby  some  400,000  persons  who  yearly  now  come  would  be  denied 
entry — a greater  number  than  comprised  the  total  immigration  of  Chinese 
and  Japanese  to  the  United  States  in  the  forty  years  of  their  immigra- 
tion freedom. 

In  the  medley  of  nations  swept  by  this  universal  dragnet,  however,  was 
the  Jew.  Yiddish  was  one  of  the  languages  in  which  the  fateful  forty 
words  were  to  be  propounded.  The  Jew,  therefore,  like  “the  Chinaman 
and  the  Jap,”  was  to  become  the  victim  of  a new  degradation.  And  if  was 


20 


the  Jew  who  saved  the  situation.  The  measure  passed  both  House  and 
Senate  and  went  to  President  Taft  for  his  signature.  The  Secretary  of 
Commerce  stoutly  opposed  it,  pointed  out  the  flimsiness  of  the  pretence 
upon  which  it  had  been  moved  through  Congress,  that  it  was  aimed  to  secure 
to  the  United  States  a superior  class  of  immigrants;  he  denounced  the 
absurdity  of  the  hypothesis  that  the  coming  hither  of  men  to  work  could  be 
a harm  to  workmen  here,  and  declared  that  the  country  needed  all  the 
workmen  it  could  get.  The  assertions  of  the  secretary  Avere  wise,  noble  and 
patriotic,  but  they  drew  upon  his  head  the  active  wrath  of  the  labor  unions. 
Upon  receiving  the  vieAvs  of  the  Secretary,  President  Taft  vetoed  the  act, 
and  it  was  returned  to  the  Senate,  which  passed  it  over  the  veto  by  a 
two-thirds  vote  Avith  eighteen  votes  to  spare,  and  it  Avent  to  the  House.  Here 
it  failed  of  re-passage  by  five  votes.  Julius  Kahn,  a Je\Ar,  Congressman  from 
the  Fourth  District  of  California,  had  killed  the  measure. 

A survivor  of  centuries  of  oppression  of  his  race  by  dominant  peoples, 
amidst-  whom  the  Semitics  were  situated  quite  like  the  Orientals  are  and 
have  been  situated  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  this  California  Congressman  had 
behind  him  a long  record  of  speeches  against  the  Chinese  and  Japanese,  in 
AArhich  he  used  the  same  arguments  opposing  these  people  that  the  JeAV 
baiters  of  Europe  have  time  out  of  mind  employed  against  the  Hebrew. 
Now  these  arguments,  having  overcome  the  Asiatic,  were  again  being  recited 
to  the  House  to  do  service  against  the  Jew,  from  Kussia,  from  Austria, 
Germany,  from  everywhere;  and  Julius  Kahn  stood  before  the  body  to 
resist,  in  defense  of  his  own  blood,  the  treatment  Avhich  he  had  so  often 
urged  upon  Congress  against  the  Asiatic.  I can  conceive  of  no  more 
pathetic  figure  than  this  magnificent  Jew,  a perfect  specimen,  physically, 
mentally,  morally  of  the  best  of  his  race,  moved  in  the  past  by  what  he 
deemed  the  exigencies  of  Pacific  Coast  politics,  to  denounce  with  proscript- 
ive laws  a defenseless  and  necessary  people — the  Chinese  and  Japanese — 
noAv  facing  this  same  House,  suppliant  for  his  own  race,  about  to  become 
the  victims  of  those  same  laws,  and  of  the  same  malignant  policy  which  he 
had  so  long  promoted  and  sustained.  Here  he  was  using  against  the  pro- 
posed legislation  the  assertions  and  logic  which  the  antagonists  of  exclusion 
had  used  against  the  enactments  of  1882,  1832,  and  1907  and  which  he  had 
flouted  as  being  without  merit.  As  against  the  Burnett-Dillingham  bill, 
he  said : 

“This  matter  of  restriction  of  immigration  is  not  a new  subject,  and 
the  present  agitation  is  but  a recrudescence  of  anti  foreign  agitation  that 
has  occurred  periodically  from  the  very  beginning  of  our  government. 
Benjamin  Franklin  deprecated,  in  1753,  the  great  influx  of  Germans  into 
Pennsylvania.  Immigrants  from  France,  from  Scandinavia,  the  Swedes, 
the  Danes,  have  all  in  their  turn  been  opposed.  The  outcry  against  the 
Irish  and  Germans  grew  loud.  The  churches  of  the  Irish  were  desecrated. 
Their  children  were  subject  to  petty  persecution  in  the  public  schools.  The 
Germans  were  publicly  denounced.  Their  neAvspapers  Avere  mobbed,  their 
Turner  halls  were  Avrecked.  In  1853  this  feeling  against  foreign  immigrants 
had  grown  so  acute  that  the  Know-Nothing  party  Avas  organized.  It  Avas 

21 


directed  expressly  against  foreign  immigrants.  In  tlie  elections  of  1854  it 
was  very  successful  and  elected  a large  number  of  members  of  Congress. 
In  1856  it  had  grown  strong  enough  to  put  up  a candidate  for  the  Presi- 
dency, Millard  Fillmore,  but  he  carried  the  electoral  vote  of  only  one  state — 
Maryland.  Let  me  call  the  attention  of  the  members  of  the  House  to  the 
mural  decoration  on  the  extreme  right  of  this  Chamber.  It  presents  a 
scene  in  Washington’s  headquarters  at  Yorktown  in  1781.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  the  artist,  Brumidi,  incensed  at  the  attacks  that  were  being 
made  upon  foreigners  during  the  exciting  period  while  he  was  at  work  on 
that  picture,  signed  the  painting  ‘C.  Brumidi,  Citizen  of  the  U.  S.,  ’ so  as  to 
emphasize  his  citizenship  and  patriotism.  I merely  cite  this  incident  to  show 
how  bitterly  the  patriotic  foreigners  of  the  Know-Nothing  period  resented 
the  petty,  narrow,  unpatriotic,  un-American  attacks  that  were  made  upon 
them  at  that  time.” 

“The  cry  against  the  immigrant,”  he  says,  “has  made  itself  heard  in 
nearly  every  period  of  the  existence  of  the  Republic.”  Yes,  but  the  common 
sense  of  the  nation  and  of  Congress  wras  strong  enough  to  resist  it,  steadily, 
until  1882  when  reason  broke  away  before  the  cry  from  the  Pacific  Coast 
against  the  only  immigrants  who  were  entering  the  country  from  that  side, 
and  concerning  a people  whom  it  was  peculiarly  fitting  and  necessary 
should  have  a large  population  on  our  coast  in  order  that  business  in 
magnitude  might  be  carried  on  between  ourselves  and  their  countries;  a 
people  who  were,  indeed,  our  people,  from  the  fact  that  they  were  our 
neighbors,  facing  us  upon  our  ocean.  If  the  Chinese  had  been  entering  upon 
the  Atlantic  seaboard,  instead  of  upon  the  Pacific,  it  is  quite  certain  that 
no  Asiatic  exclusion  laws  would  ever  have  been  passed.  The  police  of  the 
states  of  the  eastern  coast,  who  had  so  often  clubbed  down  the  mobs  who 
assailed  the  Irish,  would  have  been  quite  competent  to  have  dealt  with  the 
roughnecks  who  should  attack  the  Chinese  or  Japanese,  and  they  had  a 
summary  way  of  handling  a soap  box  orator  who  harangued  a crowd  against 
a race  of  immigrants.  On  this  coast,  however,  these  elements  of  disorder, 
being  not  properly  resisted,  got  the  upper  hand.  The  politician,  seeking 
popular  favor,  gave  ready  ear  to  them.  Many  sincere  men  in  high  position 
became  infected  with  race  antipathy,  and  saw  in  the  Asiatics  the  same 
offensive  personalities  that  the  English  saw  in  the  Irish  when  Thomas 
De  Quincy  and  Thomas  Carlyle  were  writing  their  tirades  against  the  latter 
migrating  from  Ireland  into  England.  The  California  Know-Nothings  were 
able  to  get  through  Congress  against  the  Chinese  the  exclusion  measures 
which  the  Maryland  “Plug  ugly,”  with  all  his  Members  of  Congress,  and 
his  five  governors  of  states,  was  unable  to  secure  against  the  “Pope’s 
Irish,”  the  “poverty  stricken  English,”  the  “dirty  Dutchman”  and  the 
various  epithetic-al  assortment  of  Scandinavians  and  other  outlanders  who 
were  commonly  categoried  as  the  “offscourings  of  Europe.” 

These  are  the  people  who  have  built  this  nation,  out  of  whom  the  nation 
is  •made.  They  were  not  the  well-to-do,  nor  the  aristocrats  of  Europe,  they 
were  the  poor.  But  they  were  not  lame  nor  halt,  they  were  virile  and 
strong.  Again  we  see  the  wisdom  of  Nature  in  the  action  of  man;  the 


22 


country  did  not  want  the  class  who  did  not  emigrate;  there  was  little  use 
for  the  wealthy  or  the  luxurious.  What  was  needed  was  men  to  work ; men 
with  hard  hands  and  active  limbs;  men  dissatisfied  with  their  European 
environment,  and  who  aspired  to  better  their  material  conditions  and  were 
therefore  men  of  aspirations  and  ideals.  Voluntary  emigration  is  one  of 
the  strongest  reliances  of  both  the  nation  that  sends  and  that  which  receives. 
It  shows  that  the  moving  people  are  filled  with  desire  for  progress.  It  is 
the  deed  of  a strong  man  to  emigrate.  It  requires  resolution,  courage.  It 
is  the  pulling  of  a man  by  the  roots  out  of  his  home  emplantment,  and  the 
flinging  of  him  far  abroad  into  a strange  region,  amidst  conditions,  peoples 
and  languages  'which  he  does  not  understand ; without  means,  with  all 
retreat  hack  to  his  home  and  the  resources  of  his  friends  cut  off,  with  no 
asset  but  his  sinews,  no  staff  but  his  hope — it  is  not  the  deed  of  a craven  or 
a weakling,  this  migrating  abroad;  and  when  a nation  has  arisen  in  the 
scale  of  civilization  sufficiently  far  to  possess  large  numbers  of  people  eager 
to  emigrate,  it  means  that  such  nation  contains  within  it  enormous  poten- 
tialities. Peoples  in  darkness  do  not  emigrate.  Their  minds  are  not  stimu- 
lated with  those  processes  which  stir  them  to  proceed  abroad.  Before  such 
a wish  can  arise  the  man  must  be  filled  with  desire  for  a higher  social  plane 
than  that  on  which  he  dwells ; and  this  awakened  desire  is  the  van  of 
progress  of  the  soul — the  real  purpose  and  the  real  meaning  of  God’s 
placing  the  human  upon  earth;  for  progress  is  the  order  of  the  universe. 
Not  unattended  by  obstacles  was  man  placed  here  upon  the  mundane.  He 
is  environed  by  obstacles,  beset  with  difficulties.  They  are  the  riffles  in  the 
sluice  box  of  life,  which  interpose  the  current  and  draw  forth  from  the 
mass  the  gold ; but  man  is  given  strength  to  breast  and  overcome  them,  the 
effort  and  success  at  which  increases  his  strength  and  moves  him  to  a higher 
status.  Let  us  bear  this  in  mind  when  we  discuss  exclusion,  realizing  that 
it  is  an  obstruction  and  an. evil  into  which  it  was  in  order  that  society  should 
fall;  out  of  which  we  struggle  our  way  through  seizing  the  rope  of  Right, 
from  which  once  extricated,  the  pitfall  being  known,  it  may  never  engulf 
us  again. 

The  reason  why  exclusion  of  immigration  exists  and  has  existed  is  the 
common  belief  that  the  price  of  wages  is  determined  by  demand  and  supply 
of  laborers.  I have  shown  the  fallacy  of  this  theory  in  my  paper  “Our 
National  Tendency  and  Its  Goal,”  to  which  the  reader  is  referred,  and  I 
will  not  discuss  it  in  extenso  here,  as  I have  there.  Assuming  the  doctrine 
is  correct,  the  coming  of  a workman  into  the  country  from  any  source,  from 
immigration,  or  through  the  door  of  birth,  is  a misfortune  to  those  who  are 
at  work,  or  who  are  seeking  employment;  hence  “in  order  to  protect  our 
working  people,”  immigration  exclusion  is  a necessity;  and  existing  against 
Asiatics,  it  should  properly  he  extended  against  Europeans  and  the  people 
of  the  entire  world;  this  is  the  argument  and  purpose  behind  the  literacy 
test  bills  in  Congress  to  which  I have  referred.  The  “labor  market”  theory 
has  the  acceptance  of  what  is  regarded  as  the  “highest  authority.”  I may 


23 


remark  that  it  is  generally  taught  in  the  colleges  and  acted  upon  the  world 
over,  and  forms  the  ground  structure  on  which  labor  unionism  is  based. 
It  is  stated  by  Prof.  Henry  W.  Farnam  of  the  Chair  of  Political  Economy 
of  Yale  University  in  the  “American  Year  Book  1910,”  where  it  is  asserted 
as  economic  law : 

“In  . . . industrial  freedom  wages  are  determined  by  the  ‘hig- 

gling’ of  the  market  or  by  demand  and  supply.  If  many  laborers  are 
seeking  employment,  the  demand  being  equal,  wages  tend  to  fall;  if  few, 
wages  tend  to  rise.” 

Hence,  as  I have  said  above,  it  becomes  to  the  interest  of  the  laborer 
already  in  the  country  that  scarcity  of  laborers  should  be  maintained— to 
keep  others  out,  and  to  suppress  apprentices  and  births  among  the  working 
class.  It  also  becomes  to  their  interest  to  suppress  production  of  commod- 
ities by  whatever  means  are  possible,  so  there  might  not  arise  over-supply 
through  which  workmen  would  be  laid  off ; scarcity,  therefore,  must  always 
exist  and  be  maintained,  and  whatever  practicable  means  may  secure  this 
end  must  be  employed;  waste,  strikes,  the  preventing  of  asylums,  jails  and 
penitentiaries  where  people  are  supported  partially  at  public  cost,  and 
where  their  operations  may  hence  be  controlled  by  political  action,  from 
turning  products  on  the  common  market;  also  by  keeping  imports  from 
entering  the  country;  hence  the  assumed  desirability  of  high  protective 
tariffs ; for  products  from  all  such  sources,  it  is  believed,  tend  to  supply  the 
market  and  reduce  the  demand  for  the  working  man ’s  services,  thus  increas- 
ing the  number  seeking  employment.  It  also  goes  along  with  the  popular 
opinion  that  high  prices  and  high  wages  go  together,  for  it  is  generally 
considered  that  if  the  price  of  a thing  is  low,  its  cost  of  production  being 
low,  a large  share  of  this  cost  being  wages,  wages  also  must  necessarily  be 
low;  so  that  the  popular  mind  associates  high  prices  with  high  wages,  and 
this,  it  is  assumed,  means  good  times;  while  low  prices  must  necessarily 
mean  low  wages  and  these  are  the  conditions  in  hard  times — all  of  which 
assumptions  and  reasoning  are  completely  erroneous.  Prof.  Farnam  favors 
us  with  a further  exposition  of  some  of  the  doctrines  of  wages.  He  says : 

“Economists  have  not,  however,  confined  themselves  to  studying  the 
mechanism  by  which  wages  are  determined.  They  have  demanded  a theory 
in  order  to  explain  the  causes  which  lie  back  of  this  mechanism,  and  to  show 
us  why,  at  certain  times  and  in  certain  places,  wages  tend  to  be  high,  at 
other  times  to  be  low.  For  many  years  the  wage-fund  theory  was  commonly 
accepted  by  the  classical  economists.  According  to  this  view,  the  capital 
set  aside  for  wages  constitutes  a fund  which  limits  the  demand  for  labor. 
General  wages  can,  therefore,  not  rise’  unless  either  through  an  increase  in 
the  fund  or  a diminution  of  the  number  of  laborers.  According  to  Ricardo 
higher  wages  tend  to  increase  the  population,  and  thus  the  tendency  of 
wages  is  to  relapse  after  every  advance  to  the  standard  of  living  held  by  the 
laborers.  This  somewhat  pessimistic  view  was  exaggerated  by  Lassalle; 
according  to  his  ‘iron-wage  law,’  wages  always  tend  to  fall  to  the  amount 
needed  for  bare  subsistence.  If  this  is  the  case,  it  is  clear  that  any  perma- 
nent betterment  of  the  laboring  classes  is  impossible  under  the  wage  system, 
and  this  has  been  for  many  years  the  popular  argument  in  favor  of 
socialism. 


24 


“In  sharp  contrast  to  both  of  these  theories,  stands  the  so-called 
residual  theory  of  Gen.  Francis  A.  Walker.  According  to  him,  wages  are 
really  paid  not  out  of  capital  but  out  of  the  product  of  labor.  Any  increase 
in  this  product  tends  in  the  long  run  to  benefit  the  laboring  classes,  who 
receive  all  that  is  left  after  interest,  rent  and  profits  have  been  taken  out.” 

The  wage  fund  theory,  or  the  idea  that  wages  are  drawn  directly  from 
capital  and  not  from  the  product  of  labor,  is  erroneous.  It  assumes  the 
source  of  wages  to  be  an  hypothetical  fund  set  aside  in  the  community  for 
the  payment  of  wages,  comprising  all  the  money  which  would  ultimately 
be  used  for  that  purpose,  such  as  might  obtain  in  a family  having  an 
income  of  $10,000  per  year,  of  which  $1,000  was  set  aside  for  the  wages  of 
servants.  If  this  fund  be  lessened,  the  number  of  laborers  being  the  same, 
wages  must  be  lowered ; as  where  the  family  falls  into  straits  and  is  obliged 
to  trench  on  the  $1,000 ; there  is  a lessened  sum  left  with  which  to  pay  the 
servants,  and  their  wages  must  be  reduced.  Under  this  theory  it  is  import- 
ant that  the  number  of  laborers  in  a country  he  not  increased,  for  in  such 
case  there  would  be  more  to  draw  upon  the  fund  and  wages  would  fall.  It 
was  John  Stuart  Mill’s  contention  that  population  must  be  rigidly 
restrained  in  order  that  the  average  rate  of  wages  may  be  kept  up.  This 
idea  made  Mill  an  immigration  exclusionist  and  he  strenuously  opposed  the 
entry  of  Irish  into  England.  Of  course  the  doctrine  was  wrong  and  the 
Ricardo  and  Lassalle  theories  are  just  as  impossible.  Prof.  Farnam  seems 
to  make  a qualified  condemnation  of  these  false  theories.*  They  are  helpful 
to  us  here,  however,  as  showing  that  economic  thought  has  come  through 
just  as  charlatanic  a career  as  has  thought  in  other  fields;  in  religion,  in 
law,  in  medicine;  for  the  false  gods  before  whose  idols  the  Aztec  prophet 
lifted  the  beating  heart  of  the  human  sacrifice,  or  the  jurisprudence  that 
determined  legal  contests  in  trial  by  gauge  of  battel,  or  the  treatment  of 
disease  by  drawing  off  the  patient  ’s  blood,  all  of  these  fictions  which  men  but 
lately  treated  as  truths  and  acted  upon,  were  but  counterparts  of  the  wage 
theories  which  Prof.  Farnam  quotes,  and  also  of  the  one  in  which  he  himself 
believes,  which  is  as  false  as  any.  The  true  doctrine  is  that  which  Prof. 
Farnam  states  accredited  to  Gen.  Francis  A.  Walker.  That  this  doctrine  is 
correct  is  very  apparent ; the  industrial  captain  finds  the  yield  of  his  entire 
capital  and  energy  with  that  of  his  laborers  represented  by  a given  product. 
This  he  sells,  and  from  its  proceeds  pays  his  laborers  a part  of  that  value 
which  they  have  bestowed  upon  it.  He  does  not  pay  them  all  of  this  value, 
for  he  must  make  a profit  even  upon  their  employment  or  he  will  not  do 
business;  but  he  passes  them  the  share  they  should  properly  receive;  surely 
there  is  nothing  complex  about  this!  Yet  we  see,  from  what  Prof.  Farnam 
says  of  Gen.  Walker’s  view,  that  it  runs  into  the  whole  scheme  of  wages, 
for  it  is  true  that  “any  increase  in  this  product  tends  in  the  long  run  to 

♦No  false  doctrine  was  ever  more  strongly  intrenched  in  the  belief  of  economists  of 
thirty  years  ago  than  this  same  wage  fund  theory.  Writing  in  1879  Henry  George  said 
of  it:  “I  am  aware  that  the  theorem  that  wages  are  drawn  from  capital  is  one  of  the 
most  fundamental  and  apparently  best  settled  of  current  political  economy,  and  that  it 
has  been  accepted  as  axiomatic  by  all  the  great  thinkers  who  have  devoted  their  powers 
to  the  elucidation  of  the  science.”  Mr.  George  then  proceeds  to  demolish  the  theory,  and 
his  reasoning  has  since  been  accepted  by  many,  perhaps  most,  thinkers  upon  economics. 
(Progress  and  Poverty,  p.  20.) 


25 


benefit  the  laboring  classes,  who  receive  all  that  is  left  after  interest,  rent 
and  profits  have  been  taken  cut.”  The  way  the  laborer  receives  “all  that 
is  left”  is  by  the  drawing  off  of  laborers  into  other  occupations  through  the 
door  of  opportunity,  as  I shall  explain  later,  leaving  the  industry  bidding 
the  highest  possible  Avage  for  his  services;  this  “highest  possible  wage” 
being  limited  by  the  sale  price  of  the  commodity,  rent  determined  by  the 
price  of  access  cf  equally  useful  land,  and  profits  being  such  sum  as  the 
employer  is  whiling  to  treat  as  justifying  his  remaining  in  business.  It  is 
therefore  a fact  that  labor  immigration,  by  increasing  the  product,  cannot 
hurt,  but  necessarily  must  help,  the  laborers  already  within  the  country. 
Mr.  George  says : 

“If  each  laborer  in  performing  the  labor  really  created  the  fund  from 
which  his  wages  are  drawn,  then  wages  cannot  be  diminished  by  the  increase 
of  laborers ; hut,  on  the  contrary,  as  the  efficiency  of  labor  manifestly 
increases  with  the  number  of  laborers,  the  more  laborers,  other  things  being 
equal,  the  higher  \ATages  should  be.”  (“Progress  and  Poverty,”  p.  75.) 

The  increase  of  the  product  occurring  through  increase  in  the  number 
of  laborers,  increases  the  distributee  share  of  the  laborers,  for  they  must 
consume  nearly  all  of  the  product.  The  immigrant  Avorkmen,  in  common 
Avith  all  laborers,  produce  far  more  than  they  consume;  the  surplus,  and  it 
is  large,  passes  into  the  common  volume  of  commodities.  Wherefore  prices 
fall.  The  effect  of  this  is  to  increase  real  wages,  or  the  quantity  of  things 
for  which  the  coin  is  exchanged ; for  if  there  be  abundance  of  commodities 
in  existence,  prices  Avill  be  low,  and  the  purchasing  power  of  money  will  be 
increased.  This  is  noAV  recognized  by  the  ablest  economic  writers.  See 
Encyclopedia  Britannica  11th  Ed.  Bk.  XVIII  p.  232,  Avhere  it  is  stated : 

“But  as  several  American  economists  have  pointed  out,  in  new  countries 
especially,  every  increase  in  the  number  of  laborers  may  be  accompanied 
by  a more  than  proportionate  increase  in  the  produce,  and  thus  in  the 
Avages  of  labor.” 

There  is  no  magic  about  “new  countries”  that  this  phenomenon  should 
especially  occur  therein;  it  happens  every  place  where  labor  immigration 
moves.  What  gives  the  writers  the  idea  of  “neAV  countries”  in  this  behalf 
is,  that  it  is  to  new  countries  that  labor  immigration  most  frequently  pro- 
ceeds. But  it  will  happen  in  old  countries  just*  as  readily,  when  they  arise 
through  industrial  development  to  call  on  the  lesser  enlightened  nations 
for  their  migrants,  as  is  now  the  case  in  Europe  with  Germany,  and  has  to 
some  extent  been  the  case  with  England,  though  impaired  through  ascend- 
ancy of  labor  unionism  and  its  attendant  slough  of  inefficient  and  idle 
laborers.  It  is  economic  law  that  labor  immigration  cannot  reduce  Avages, 
but  it  increases  Avages.  Experience  with  the  Chinese  on  this  coast  shoAved 
that  it  could  not  even  reduce  nominal,  or  coin,  Avages.  An  examination  of 
the  Avages  paid  in  San'  Francisco  between  1870-82,  in  those  industries  in 
which  the  Chinese  Avere  most  generally  employed,  namely  woollen  mills, 
cigar  making,  slipper  manufacturing  and  sewing  industries,  showed  that 
the  Avages  of  all  operatives  were  higher  than  those  paid  in  the  east  in  similar 


26 


departments  of  the  several  industries.  The  assertions  of  the  exclusionists 
that  Orintal  immigration  reduces  wages  was  always  false ; it  cannot  occur. 
The  contrary  is  the  fact,  it  raises  wages.  That  real  wages  in  California 
today  are  lower  than  they  were  during  the  days  of  free  Chinese  immigra- 
tion, all  will  recognize  upon  a little  reflection.  The  prevailing  wages  of 
common  labor,  for  instance,  at  present  is  from  $2  to  $2.50  per  day.  Henry 
George,  writing  in  1879,  while  Oriental  immigration  was  free,  for  the  first 
exclusion  act  was  passed  in  1882,  says  (lb.  p.  17)  “now  common  ivages 
are  $2  or  $2.50  a day.”  It  is  true  that  in  the  trades,  under  the  influence 
of  the  unions,  wages  are  higher  today  than  they  were  in  1879,  in  some 
trades  perhaps  twace  as  high.  But  prices  of  commodities  and  rent  are 
today  from  100%  to  150%  higher  than  they  were  at  that  time,  so  that  even 
the  labor  union  laborers  receive  no  more  today  than  they  received  while 
Oriental  immigration  was  free,  whereas  upon  the  common  labor  has  fallen 
the  heavy  hand  of  the  condition  of  high  prices  for  which  the  unions  are 
chiefly  responsible.  This  condition  affects  us  all,  for  times  are  very  much 
harder  now  than  then  during  the  days  of  free  Oriental  immigration ; those 
were  the  days  of  plenty  and  general  prosperity  in  California.* 

The  truth  as  shoAvn  by  Gen.  Walker,  Mr.  George  and  the  encyclopedists, 
however,  is  rejected  by  our  collegiate  political  economists  generally.  It  is 
very  remarkable  that  so  large  a number  of  these  gentlemen  who  teach  our 
youth,  seem  unable  either  to  reason  themselves  into  the  truth,  or  to  recog- 
nize it  when  it  is  shown  to  them.  This  is  most  unfortunate ; did  they  dis- 
seminate truth  instead  of  fallacy  the  mind  of  the  country  would  soon  be 
set  right  on  these  great  economic  problems,  and-  immigration  exclusion 
\Arould  be  the  first  error  cured.  The  public  regards  them  as  sitting  on  the 
dais  of  economic  thought  and  the  publishing  houses  and  press,  both  daily 
and  periodical,  are  always  open  to  print  their  utterances.  To  others  they 
are  closed ; and  when  a man  of  the  latter  order  conies  forward  he  must,  to 
get  a hearing,  appeal  directly  to  the  people  by  speech  and  pamphlet.  The 
attitude  of  the  labor  unions  is  precisely  that  of  the  college  professors.  They 
adhere  to  and  practice  the  same  doctrines,  which  have  become  orthodox,  and 
they  are  not  open  to  any  reasoning  upon  the  correctness  of  their  economic 
attitude.  Between  this  upper  and  nether  millstone  of  erroneous  economics 
the  public  suffers  as  in  a vise,  and  it  is  those  men  who  have  no  relation  either 
to  schools  or  interests,  but  who  are  free  to  folloAv  truth  wherever  she  may 
lead,  who  hew  the  way.  These,  like  Adam  Smith  the  private  tutor  and 
Henry  George  the  printer,  always  struggle  under  difficulties,  in  the  presence 
of  doubt,  indifference  and  obstruction,  their  work  being  appreciated  in 
about  the  third  generation  after  their  deaths. 

*See  “Chinese  Immigration,”  p.  375,  by  Mary  Roberts  Coolidge.  Also  article  of 
Ho  Yow,  Chinese  Consul  General  at  San  Francisco,  North  American  Review,  Sept.  1901,  in 
which  he  states  that  “the  gala  days  of  San  Francisco’s  life  and  happiness  were  during  the 
years  that  proceeded  1882.”  Also  that  when  he  came  to  the  Consulate-general  several 
years  prior  to  the  date  of  his  article,  the  most  conspicuous  feature  of  the  city  was  the 
number  of  “to  let”  signs  in  the  windows  of  vacant  stores  and  residences  about  the  city. 
That  the  exclusion  law  acted  on  the  business  of  San  Francisco  “like  a cone  over  a lighted 
candle”  and  that  business  activities  of  the  city  did  not  revive  from  the  blow  given  it  by 
the  exclusion  statutes,  until  Dewey’s  victory. 


27 


Prof.  Farnam  himself  rejects  this  truth  as  presented  by  General 
Walker.  He  says,  continuing  his  statement: 

“Few  economists  at  the  present  day  accept  any  one  of  these  theories 
as  completely  explaining  wages.  Most  agree  in  thinking  that,  while  under 
a condition  of  freedom  of  contract,  wages  are  determined  by  the  interaction 
of  supply  and  demand,  the  causes  which  influence  and  limit  these  are  very 
complicated.  They  also  realize  that  even  when  the  general  causes  deter- 
mining the  demand  for  and  supply  of  labor  are  constant,  they  do  not 
operate  with  absolute  precision,  but  that  there  is  room  for  an  appreciable 
margin  between  the  minimum  which  the  laborer  is  willing  to  take  and  the 
maximum  which  the  employer  is  willing  to  pay.  Within  this  margin, 
wages  may  he  moved  up  or  down  in  accordance  with  the  superior  bargaining 
power  of  the  parties  concerned.  In  other  words,  it  is  quite  conceivable 
that  general  economic  conditions  might  justify  higher  wages  than  are  paid, 
and  yet  that  through  ignorance  of  these  conditions,  or  inability  to  assert 
their  demands,  the  wage  workers  may  fail  to  get  what  circumstances 
warrant.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  also  possible  that  wages  may  temporarily 
remain  on  a higher  level  than  business  conditions  justify.” 

The  statement  is  in  effect  that  the  labor  union  is  necessary  in  industry. 
That  “collective  bargaining”  is  the  essential  principle  of  the  relations 
between  employer  and  employee ; that  neither  the  individual  employer  or 
the  workman  are  any  longer  free.  Outside  the  zone  of  the  “higglers”  with 
their  fluctuating  margin  between  them,  both  are  crushed  as  an  eggshell,  as 
though  the  atmosphere  had  been  displaced  by  a vacuum.  That  the  weapons 
of  the  union — the  strike  and  the  boycott— and  their  counterpart  the  lock- 
out, are  necessary  adjuncts  to  industry,  whose  natural  condition  is  one  of 
warfare ; that  this  can  never  be  otherwise,  because  the  condition  rests  upon 
the  truths  of  economic  law.  In  accentuation  of  this  Prof.  Farnam  proceeds : 

“It  is  often  difficult  for  the  individual  to  influence  these  conditions, 
because  it  is  generally  easy  to  fill  a single  place.  The  demands  of  the 
workers  are  more  effective  if  many  act  in  common.  Hence  the  strike,  or 
simultaneous  cessation  of  work,  has  become  a common  feature  of  labor 
movements  during  the  past  century;  they  have  been  numerous  and 
unusually  significant  in  1910.  Trade  unions  have  also  arisen  in  order  to 
give  a great  effectiveness  to  united  action  by  making  organization  perma- 
nent, and  putting  it  under  competent  leaders.” 

In  reply  to  what  Prof.  Farnam  says  in  approbation  of  the  unions  and 
their  principle,  I refer  the  reader  to  my  paper  already  noticed.*  The 
Professor  thinks  he  is  not  in  favor  of  socialism,  yet  he  is  in  truth  a socialist, 
for  labor  unionism  is  socialism,  and  cannot  be  otherwise.  It  is  needless  to 
say  that  Prof.  Farnam  is  altogether  wrong.  The  error  lies  at  the  very  root 
of  the  doctrine  which  he  and  so  many  of  his  colleagues  believe,  and  whose 
belief  is  impressed  upon  the  country;  wages  are  not  determined  by  demand 
and  supply  of  laborers.  Wages  are  determined  by  opportunity  to  labor; 
“opportunity  to  labor”  is  very  different  from  “demand  and  supply.”  The 
latter  is  an  effect  of  “opportunity  to  labor,”  and  does  not  rank  with  it. 
“Demand  and  supply  of  laborers”  means  simply  the  “higgle”  between  the 
employer  and  the  applicant;  “opportunity  to  labor”  may  abound  in  as 

*“Our  National  Tendency  and  Its  Goal.” 


28 


many  regions  as  there  are  lines  of  direction.  If  opportunity  to  labor  be 
abundant  there  will  be  no  “higgle”  at  the  door  of  the  employer  over 
wages;  there  will  be  no  “room  for  an  appreciable  margin  between  the 
minimum  which  the  laborer  is  willing  to  take  and  the  maximum  which  the 
employer  is  willing  to  pay”  as  Prof.  Farnam  states,  and  which,  accordingly, 
the  laborer  must  have  the  backing  of  a union  for  him  to  get.  No  such 
“margin”  exists.  If  the  “higgle,”  or  rather  the  force,  firmed  or  other,  of 
the  union  succeeds  in  driving  up  wages,  the  price  of  commodity  will  he 
raised  and  raised  proportionately  higher,  for  more  wages  means  more  money 
to  conduct  business,  more  interest  to  be  paid,  and  increased  cost  in  divers 
directions.  Industry  adjusts  itself  to  given  wages,  and  competition  in  price 
of  the  commodity  on  the  market  determines  a reasonable  profit  to  the 
employer,  which  if  he  does  not  receive,  he  will  not  continue  business.  The 
necessary  concomitant  to  the  labor  union  is  combination  among  the  pro- 
ducers and  monopoly  of  the  product.  Only  by  such  solidarity  can  either 
the  union  be  resisted,  or  higher  than  economic  wages  be  paid.*  Under  free 
conditions  the  laborer  will  be  offered  the  highest  wages  which,  with  other 
elements  of  cost  and  profit  deducted,  the  product  on  the  market  will  allow; 
and  when  he  receives  this,  wages  will  not  go  higher.  When  the  gold  deposits 
of  the  Yukon  were  discovered,  sailors  left  vessels  moored  at  the  wharves  in 
Vancouver  and  trains  in  Seattle  were  left  standing  without  crews  in  the 
general  rush  for  the  diggings.  There  were  opportunities  with  higher 
rewards  for  labor  than  those  paid  by  the  industries  forsaken.  The  railroads 
and  vessels  had  to  offer  the  very  highest  possible  wages  to  get  men,  there 
was  no  “higgle”  whatever,  it  was  simply  an  offer. 

Here  Prof.  Farnam  and  his  confreres  would  say  there  was  labor  scarcity 
in  Seattle,  and  because  of  that  scarcity  higher  wages  were  offered,  hence 
the  condition  was  one  of  demand  and  supply;  but  it  can  be  seen  that  the 
scarcity  was  only  a result  of  the  opening  of  an  opportunity  to  labor. 


*The  union  compelling  the  producer  to  pay  a higher  rate  of  wages  than  the  market  of 
the  commodity  will  allow,  forces  an  increase  of  price  of  the  latter;  and  as  the  higher 
prices  go  the  less  is  the  consumption,  the  more  acute  becomes  the  struggle  to  make  sales, 
which  results  in  individual  producers  being  forced  to  forego  their  profits  upon  occasion, 
and  “cutting  under"  the  current  market  in  price;  there  hence  arises  among  the  producers 
a tendency  to  combination  in  order  that  this  demoralization  of  business  may  be  prevented. 
This  combination  has  for  its  purpose  the  fixing  of  prices  of  the  commodity  within  the 
zone  of  its  operations;  and  this  combination  quickly  becomes  a monopoly  or  a trust,  and 
employs  part  of  its  energies  in  fighting  off  the  entry  of  newcomers  into  the  field,  or 
driving  out  of  business  those  within  the  field  who  refuse  to  enter,  or  who  are  not 
admitted  to,  the  combine.  Having  control  of  prices,  it  is  a matter  somewhat  of  indiffer- 
ence to  the  combine  as  to  what  higher  figure  the  union  moves  wages,  for  the  combine 
can  meet  the  raise  by  automatically  shoving  up  the  price  of  the  commodity.  Without 
this  combination,  many  would  be  forced  out  of  business  through  the  ruinous  price  cutting. 
The  result  of  the  combination  is  lessened  consumption  of  the  commodity,  but  this  means 
simply  the  laying  off  of  laborers  by  the  producer.  Here  we  see  the  strong  centralizing 
force  of  the  union,  its  creation  of  an  aristocracy  of  labor,  and  the  slough  of  idle  laborers 
thrown  off  by  the  constricting  process  who  in  turn  become  I.  W.  W.’s,  tramps,  socialists, 
anarchists  and  other  disturbers  of  society.  Did  the  union  not  affect  wages,  nominal 
wages  would  be  lower,  products  would  be  cheaper,  demand  therefor  would  increase  and 
with  it  general  business,  while  real  wages  would  not  be  disturbed.  The  pressing  need  of 
combination  to  fix  prices  would  in  the  presence  of  active  business  not  appear.  A 
producer  having  “all  he  can  attend  to,’’  in  a normal  state  of  business,  is  not  disposed  to 
cut  prices,  but  will  stand  for  a fair  return.  Price  cutting  below  a line  of  reasonable  profit 
is  a condition  of  market  stress  arising  through  slackened  demand,  and  the  efforts  of  the 
producer  to  tide  things  over  and  keep  in  business  in  hopes  for  better  times.  Slackened 
demand  follows  higher-than-economic  nominal  or  coin  wages,  increasing  cost.  The 
producer  offsets  this  condition  by  combining  and  fixing  prices,  the  most  rational  way  in 
which  the  state  of  things  can  be  met.  This  dual  condition  is  of  course  highly  harmful 
to  the  public. 


29 


Scarcity  was  a secondary,  not  the  primary  incident;  it  was  an  effect  only. 
The  real  influence,  the  cause  which  produced  the  scarcity,  was  the  oppor- 
tunity presented  by  free  access  to  productive  land.  The  railroads  were  not 
bargaining,  they  were  bidding  against  a labor  opportunity. 

The  difference  between  the  “demand  and  supply”  idea  and  “oppor- 
tunity” is  radical.  They  are  at  opposite  ends  of  the  pole.  If  the  difference 
were  recognized  if  would  be  seen  that  the  interest  of  the  laborer  lies  not  in 
combining  with  his  fellows,  so  that  he  can  strengthen  his  side  at  the 
“higgle”  with  the  armed  force  of  a union,  the  latter  to  create  scarcity  of 
labor  keeping  others  than  its  members  out  of  industry,  thereby  holding 
down  products  while  increasing  prices  thereof,  hence  decreasing  real  wages, 
hut  it  would  lie  in  opening  and  extending  opportunity  to  labor.  In  so 
doing  it  would  vigorously  oppose  exclusion  of  laborers,  for  every  laborer 
who  enters  the  country  is  a factor  for  plenty,  in  that  he  produces,  as  I have 
said,  far  more  than  he  consumes,  and,  as  stated,  the  part  of  his  production 
which  he  does  not  consume  goes  to  increase  the  common  supply  of  com- 
modities, hence  increasing  real  wages  through  allowing  a larger  distributive 
share  to  every  worker.  But  the  labor  immigrant  does  more ; through 
increasing  supply  he  increases  labor  opportunity;  for  most  materials  pro- 
duced must  be  further  manipulated  from  their  first  form  by  added  labor 
before  they  are  ready  for  the  consumer.  If  I produce  bricks,  some  one 
must  build  houses  with  the  bricks;  and  if  houses  be  so  built  others  must 
make  furniture  and  carpets  to  put  into  them;  furniture  requires  the 
cutting  of  wood,  carpets  the  growing  of  sheep,  and  so  on  ad  infinitum;  one 
commodity  created  is  simply  a factor  calling  upon  labor  to  produce  other 
commodities  to  unite  with  it.  The  Japanese,  growing  strawberries  at  Florin, 
were  calling  upon  the  labor  of  white  box  makers,  white  canners,  white 
makers  of  tin  and  all  who  operate  in  the  tin  industry;  the  printers  of  labels 
and  all  who  work  in  the  label  phase  of  the  paper  industry;  the  whites  who 
operate  the  railroads ; those  who  do  draying ; the  millers  who  make  the  flour 
from  the  grain  that  the  farmer  grows;  the  bakers  who  bake  the  canned 
berries  into  pies;  the  people  in  the  sugar  industry;  and  finally  upon  the 
storekeepers  who  distribute  the  pies  to  the  consumers  who  are  now  able  to 
eat  strawberry  pies  which,  but  for  the  labors  of  the  Florin  Japanese,  they 
would  not  have  gotten  at  all.  So  we  see  that  it  is  abundance  that  gives 
opportunity  to  labor,  which  decreases  prices  of  commodities  by  increasing 
supply  and  thereby  increases  real  wages.  With  this  matter  of  opportunity 
to  labor  the  union  refuses  to  have  absolutely  anything  to  do.  The  reason 
is  simply  that  if  the  union  worked  on  this  side  of  the  wage  problem,  there 
would  soon  be  no  use  for  the  union,  and  the  “competent  leaders,”  of  whom 
Prof.  Farnam  so  approvingly  speaks,  would  find  themselves  out  of  jobs  in 
“making  organization  permanent.” 

We  have  seen  in  the  instances  of  the  gold  diggings  of  the  Yukon,  what 
an  intimate  bearing  free  access  to  productive  land  has  upon  wages;  and  the 
agitation  has  grown  over  the  country  for  laws  to  force  idle  lands  into  use 


30 


by  increasing  the  taxes  upon  tlieir  value,  a method  which  now  obtains  in 
greater  or  less  degree  in  most  of  the  colonies  of  Great  Britain,  to  some 
extent  in  England  itself  through  the  recent  allotment  acts,  in  the  German 
empire  through  the  taxation  of  increase  in  land  values,  introduced  in 
1909-10,*  and  is  at  present  the  salient  demand  in  the  program  of  Chancellor 
Lloyd-George  for  land  reform  in  England.  In  a state  of  low  industrial 
activity  in  a country,  such  as  now  obtains  on  this  Coast,  land  is  held  out  of 
use  because  its  value  is  small  and  the  taxes  upon  it  are  correspondingly 
low,  and  not  above  the  abilities  of  the  speculators  who  hold  the  land,  hoping 
for  higher  prices,  to  pay.  But  large  labor  immigration,  through  producing 
great  industrial  activity,  increases  the  value  of  land,  and  correspondingly 
increases  the  taxes  upon  it.  Land  is  thereby  forced  into  use,  for  the  land 
owner  stands  between  a push  and  a pull,  moving  him  to  dispose  of  his  lands 
to  users ; he  has  behind  him  the  high  taxes  which  he  cannot  afford  to  pay 
on  idle  lands,  and  before  him  the  lure  of  high  priced  offers;  the  two  condi- 
tions combine  to  compel  him  to  sell  or  lease,  in  whichever  case  land  is  put 
to  use.  This  is  the  influence  under  which  the  land  areas  of  California  have 
been  divided  up  as  they  stand  today,  and  the  great  ranches  which  at  the 
treaty  of  Guadeloupe  Hidalgo  embraced  nearly  all  the  state,  have  been 
parceled  and  distributed.  The  “gringo”  came,  and  with  his  industrial 
activities,  increased  the  value  of  land ; this  increased  taxes  on  the  lands  to 
a greater  extent  than  their  owners  were  able  to  pay,  and  they  were  forced 
to  sell,  and  in  most  cases  were  glad  to  sell,  at  the  high  prices  which  were 
offered.  Experience  shows  that  under  these  influences  lands  will  be  sold 
rather  than  leased.  Lands  used  under  lease  have  a bearing  on  wages,  in 
that  nominal  wages  are  measured  by  what  one  may  make  off  of  land  to 
which  he  has  access;  what  the  tenant  receives  for  his  labor  on  the  land  will 
be  determined  by  the  share  of  his  product  which  he  pays  as  rent;  a man 
will  not  accept  a job  at  my  ranch  at  $35  per  month,  if  across  the  way  he 
can  get  a lease  on  a fifty-acre  tract  at  $5  per  acre,  on  which  he  can  grow  a 
crop  of  corn  which  he  can  sell  at  the  rate  of  $50  per  acre.  In  order  that  he 
shall  accept  my  offer,  the  rent  of  the  land  would  have  to  be  fixed  at  a price 
which  'would  make  it  “a  toss  up”  whether  he  shall  go  on  the  land  or 
work  for  me. 

The  entire  exclusion  policy  shows  itself  to  us,  therefore,  as  a huge 
mistake;  doing  the  highest  harm  to  the  very  people  whom  it  is  intended  to 
benefit,  and  making  us  all  suffer  in  corresponding  degree.  I have  said 
nothing  herein  concerning  the  race  prejudice  which  in  part  sustains  exclu- 
sion on  our  statutes.  Such  antipathies  do  afflict  some,  it  is  true,  but  hatreds 
would  soon  disappear  when  people  come  to  understand  that  the  Orientals 
are  beneficial,  profitable  and  necessary  to  be  amongst  us,  and  that  in  no 
sense  are  they  a harm.  There  is  no  substance  in  the  talk  about  non-assimi- 

*The  increase  in  land  values  in  the  German  empire  in  1912  amounted  to  about 
$60,000,000,  the  tax'  thereon  being  about  $9,000,000.  This  innovation  is  characterized  as 
“a  limited  application  of  the  single  tax.”  See  “Monarchial  Socialism  in  Germany,”  by 
Elmer  Roberts.  Chap.  VIII. 


31 


lation.  No  peoples  in  tlie  world  are  objectionable  to  us  on  this  ground.  If 
the  objection  be  analyzed  it  will  be  found  to  rest  altogether  on  race  hatred, 
a fact  that  is  not  known  to  the  American  people,  which,  as  soon  as  they 
discover,  and  realizing  that  there  is  no  truth  in  the  assertion  that  the  coming 
of  the  Oriental  laborer  does  a harm  to  workmen  here,  would  cause  them  to 
move  repeal  of  the  exclusion  laws.  These  facts  being  understood,  with  a 
federal  law  in  existence  placing  aliens  under  the  protection  of  the  United 
Stats,  and  making  it  a crime  punishable  by  the  same  authority  to  abuse  by 
words  people  on  account  of  race,  would  soon  procure  quiet  and  tolerance  of 
Orientals  on  this  coast,  and  they  have  never  been  disturbed  elsewhere.  In 
a little  while  the  business  revival,  which  would  be  manifest  upon  their 
renewed  coming  to  the  country,  would  overwhelmingly  strengthen  sentiment 
in  their  favor.  We  should  again  have  large  and  general  prosperity,  this 
time  with  enduring  peace. 

Thirty  years  of  exclusion  legislation  has  shown  us  on  this  coast  its  ruinous 
nature.  The  stagnation  in  business,  the  slow  growth  of  the  populations  of 
the  cities — building  from  the  country  behind  the  towns  instead  of  from  the 
empires  in  front,  the  practical  absence  of  shipping  and  manufacturing,  the 
insignificance  of  San  Francisco  as  a port,  when  it  should  be  one  of  the  great 
ports  of  the  Avorld ; the  high  cost  at  which  all  things  are  produced,  which 
narrows  the  zone  of  their  transportation  and  exchange,  making  ocean-going 
commerce  originating  in  the  state  confined  to  few  articles  of  first  produc- 
tion ; the  ascendancy  of  labor  union  and  socialistic  dogma  and  legislation ; 
the  bewilderment  of  the  people  over  the  course  upon  which  things  are 
drifting,  with  the  ominous  day  of  reckoning,  which  from  our  headlands  and 
with  eyes  across  our  ocean,  all  thinking  men,  with  clear  lenses,  may  now 
plainly  see — this  condition  calls  loudly  for  correction,  for  knowledge  to  be 
imparted  to  the  people  that  they  may  be  made  to  realize  the  errors  of  their 
policy  and  moved  to  repeal  exclusion,  abandon  isolation  and  again  place 
this  quarter  of  the  continent  in  the  way  of  the  vast  development  which  is 
her  right,  which  can  only  be  done  hand  in  hand  with  the  Oriental  peoples, 
and  through  those  agencies  which  contribute  to  a mutual  progress. 

The  question  before  the  people  of  either  and  both  coasts  is:  shall  the 
exposition  and  presentation  to  all  and  sundry  of  ourselves  be  undertaken? 
We  have  reached  a stage  in  our  affairs  where,  in  order  to  go  forward,  we 
must  first  comprehend  the  principles  which  govern  the  relations  of  the 
several  peoples,  and  the  economic  laws  in  respect  thereto.  The  same  condi- 
tion is  presented  here  as  obtains  in  the  Huai  River  district ; there  people  are 
perishing  because  Knowledge  has  been  withheld  from  them ; here,  similarly 
through  lack  of  Knowledge,  we  are  suffering  the  strains  of  international 
hatreds  and  the  stress  of  economic  adversity,  as  a prelude  to  the  destruction 
which  shall  be  our  mete  in  the  fullness  of  time.  The  query  is : have  we  the 
initiative  or  the  energy  to  study  the  question  and  the  common  sense  to 
understand  the  condition,  or  is  indisposition  to  continue  and  dereliction  to 
ensue  on  part  of  those  who  have  both  the  means  and  knowledge  to  spread 


32 


the  gospel  that  will  bring  the  change  ? If  I should  take  this  case  to  a band 
of  Indians  residing  somewhere  on  a reservation,  and  state  it  to  them,  I 
should  get  stolid  indifference  for  my  labors.  The  Indians  are  not  quickened 
in  thought  to  grasp  the  meaning  of  the  conditions  pointed  out.  Did  the 
matter  rest  with  them  they  must,  animal  like,  suffer  the  present,  await  the 
denouement  and  take  the  consequences.  But  are  we  thus  to  stand  as  sheep 
to  the  slaughter ! There  are  times  and  conditions  when  indifference  to 
public  concerns  is  not  alone  a crime  but  it  is  suicidal.  He  who  is  in  trust 
and  active  charge  of  the  concerns  of  others  on  this  coast,  who  carries  the 
confidence  of  his  wards  and  whose  duty  it  is  to  defend  their  affairs,  who 
shall  nonchalantly  toss  behind  his  shoulder  the  call  which  these  conditions 
make  upon  his  thought — what  crime  is  his?  And  what  scores  among  us 
there  are  of  such ! Every  business  man  on  this  coast  has  a charge  therewith 
connected  in  this  case.  Granted  he  has  not  been  heretofore  advised,  he 
knows  now.  He  has  hitherto  swung  along  without  reasoning  at  all  on  the 
matters  moving  before  him,  suffering  the  ignorant,  the  passionate,  the  selfish, 
the  unthinking  to  control  in  views  and  political  action  these  great  affairs; 
accepting  assertions  without  examination;  wrapped  in  meditation  upon  his 
private  interests,  apathetic,  unconcerned.  Such  is  the  “primrose  path  of 
dalliance”  over  which  one  gees  rollicking  along  in  a sociological  region, 
which  terminates  at  the  sky-vaulting  cliff,  and  ends  with  unrecognizable 
shapes  and  debris,  in  a common  abyss. 


33 


' 


\ 


